Awakened Drama
by 3luv4eva3
Summary: When Knock Out and Arcee start to get close, everyone sees an unexpected change in themselves because of it. So its up to Windswept and her friends to see what's going on. Meanwhile, Starscream has got a couple of new Decepticons under his belt since the end of the war and he'll do whatever it takes for him to rise and become the new leader of Earth. AU, slightly OOC, DISCONTINUED!
1. Chapter 1

_Summary – When Knock Out and Arcee start to get close, everyone sees an unexpected change in themselves because of it. So its up to Windswept and her friends to see what's going on. Meanwhile, Starscream has got a couple of new Decepticons under his belt since the end of the war and he'll do whatever it takes for him to rise and become the new leader of Earth. KnockOutXArceeX? Love triangle, SmokescreenXOC, MegatronXOC later on, set during season 2, contains elements of season 3_

I'm thinking that when all this occurs, it occurs round about after 'The Human Factor'. There is a few reasons for this. One is that I never write any Transformers Prime stories without Smokescreen because that was when I began typing half my stories. And the second is so that there is nothing about the Star Saber and the Omega Keys etc... I think that the episode 'Legacy' was the one that started off slowly with the Star Saber and then so forth with Omega Keys and the Lock and to the big cliffhanger at the end of season 2.

SPOILER ALERT – DO NOT READ THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH IF DON'T WANT ME TO RUIN THE NEW SHOW!

To be honest, it scares me to think that the show finished nearly two years ago and I am still disappointed that it ended the way it ended. We still have missing gaps from the other Decepticons. And I was thinking that the new show Transformers: Robots In Disguise 2015 would answer them. And sadly, it was not to be. I am displeased with the new show because I have heard that all they are doing is capturing other Decepticons and it sounds like its gonna keep cycling that same cycle. So to be honest, why bother? I will still watch because it is Transformers, but I really don't see the point sadly.

Some new OC's of mine are occurring in this and I'm quite happy about it. If you have read 'The Hidden Stalker' and 'Untitled', you will know that this story has my OC Windswept. Anyways, lets get started!

* * *

"WHY DO I ALWAYS LOSE?!"

A month had passed since the end of the war and things had certainly changed. At first, Optimus didn't believe that Megatron had realised what he had done wrong. And neither did the others. But Megatron meant every word and he proposed that he, along with Soundwave, Dreadwing and Knock Out join the Autobots and stand alongside Earth to help fight off any enemy who wishes to possess a threat against Earth.

The Autobots soon adjusted to their new allies. And the humans adjusted slowly, since June Darby was still angered over what Megatron had done to harm Rafael. But even the latter forgave Megatron for his crimes against him and Bumblebee.

Soundwave, the silent mech had bonded with Rafael and together with their hacking skills, were a dangerous combo. And it even scared both Optimus and Megatron on one occasion when they and Bumblebee came home with a near-house full of Energon. When they asked how they got it, this was their answer.

"We just know things that you guys don't."

But if it got them the Energon they depended on, then they would never question it.

Miko had made a new friend in Dreadwing, the mech teaching her everything about the bombs he used and everything more. Bulkhead and Wheeljack found it quite difficult to not slit his throat because of him almost killing them and Optimus. But they eventually sorted their differences and the trio found that had a lot more in common than they previously thought. And even Miko loved having him around.

There was concern around the friendship with Jack and Smokescreen at first. But when Knock Out arrived, things were more concerning. They had two things in common – females and racing. And even Knock Out found enjoyment in flirting with the human females when he activated his holoform.

And so, here were Knock Out, Jack, Miko and Smokescreen, playing a simple racing car game. And it was frustrating for Jack that he was not able to win one simple race. Out of the twenty or so races, Knock Out had won most with Smokescreen soon to follow. Miko had one or two wins to her name and of course, Jack had none.

"Why is it that you two win so much?!" Miko asked with a pout, crossing her arms. She rested her head on the boy's shoulder and glared at the screen that was flashing 'KO WINS!'.

"Well, when you get bored, you have to find something to pass the time. And sometimes, racing in our vehicle forms just isn't satisfying any more" Smokescreen explained with a show off tone in his voice.

"Besides, winning against this loony guy all the time-" Knock Out punched Smokescreen's shoulder as the latter glared at him, "-Gets boring."

"Haha, like you win all the time!"

"Maybe starting a relationship with 'Swept has made him softer than he originally was!"

Smokescreen rolled his optics and let out a dry laugh, "If anything, it's made me stronger!" With that, Smokescreen leapt and smashed his elbow into Knock Out as the two fell on the ground in a childlike matter.

With interest, Miko and Jack got off the couch and went to the railing behind them to see what could be the start of a spar. And Knock Out's screech was just the beginning.

"WATCH THE PAINT!"

And that was enough for someone to get a 'little' angry...

"STOP ACTING LIKE SPARKLINGS AND TAKE IT SOMEWHERE ELSE!"

"Blame Ratchet for spoiling the fun!" Miko sneered at the medic.

"Yeah, I was looking forward to a little spar!" Wheeljack agreed as he Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Dreadwing walked up to them, "And this has been bubbling between these two for ages!"

"Sorry guys. We're just working on something over here and we just need some time to figure it out," Raf apologised from his seat on Ratchet's shoulder, his eyes never leaving the computer that was sitting on his lap.

"What the frag is going on?" Apart from Soundwave, Ratchet and Raf, the group of Autobots turned to see two motorcycles entering the base. When they transformed, they revealed themselves to be Arcee and Windswept, interest sparking in their optics and from what they heard when they were arriving, something interesting was going on.

"Hey beautiful." Windswept blinked for only a second before Smokescreen had his lips on hers and his arm wrapped around her waist. The femme kissed him back as she placed a hand on his cheek, a smile tracing on her features.

"See what I mean about him becoming soft?!"

Windswept ignored the former Decepticon medic as she pulled away from Smokescreen, "Hey handsome. Can't talk sorry. I gotta go see Aqua and Star-"

"Ahhh yes, the normal girls chat at five p.m," Knock Out commented teasingly, "What are we talking about today girls? Clothes? Hair? Boys?!"

Windswept rolled her optics, "Haha, very funny! We're not femmes who worry about the way we look, you know!"

"Says the femme who I see in the mirror posing and trying all sorts of different dresses on when she goes on a human date with Smoke!"

Windswepts smile dropped to a frown when Wheeljack said that. And there were chuckles around her, including from her mech. So she elbowed him in the hip, forcing him to stand up straight and trying to keep a blank face.

"How do you know?!" Knock Out laughed at Windswept's screech to the Wrecker. At least he wasn't the only one worried about the way he looked. His optics searched for Arcee, who stood beside Bulkhead. When the femme found his optics and smiled, Knock Out smiled back and turned away, facing Wheeljack.

"I have my ways. Well, actually...no. Its Soundwave who has his ways."

Windswept faced the silent mech, who had turned around when he heard his name. His screen produced a normal face with a smile. One eye was close and its tongue was sticking out, irritating Windswept as the group roared in laughter. She was thankful when Ratchet smacked his arm, the silent mech's face on the screen disappearing and turning back to what he was doing beforehand.

"Since we were so rudely interrupted before." Ratchet waved off Knock Out as the latter continued, "Maybe we should spar in the training room. Ratchet won't have to worry about you crying so loudly when I kick your aft!"

"You'll be dead before you get to do that!"

"I'll see you later, sweetspark," Windswept promised with a wave as Smokescreen waved back and headed off to the training room with Knock Out, Dreadwing, Wheeljack, Bulkhead, Jack and Miko following.

Windswept and Arcee went to follow them before Arcee paused and looked at Bumblebee, who's back was turned to them, "You coming Bee?"

"**Raf's gotta go home soon so I'm gonna wait and drop him off,**" Bumblebee answered when he faced them, "**I'll see you guys tomorrow.**"

"Goodnight Bee!" The two femmes wished as they continued down the hallway to the training room.

"You wanna come hang out with us? We have high grade and Energon cookies. And I know you can't say no to them!"

Arcee shook her head, "Not tonight, 'Swept. I was gonna go see the spar. Seeing those two in a battle is sounding interesting and I don't wanna miss it. Maybe another time?"

"At least they have nothing to fight over." Arcee smiled, remembering the war that ended only four weeks ago. How times had changed – from fighting for Energon to now working to together to search for it. It was a sight some of the Autobots never saw coming.

"They still have dignity."

Windswept laughed, "Good point!"

"Yeah," Arcee whispered in a daze, "I still can't believe that the war is over..."

"Me neither, but at least we're happy. And this was what every one of our fallen comrades would have wanted. I bet seeing us happy would make them happy," Windswept smiled as the reach the training room door, "Hey, if you ever wanna hang with us, just let us know!"

"Save me some Energon cookies, will you?! See ya!"

"Sure thing. Laters!" Arcee chuckled at the femme who bounced away to the end of the corridor before she turned right. The blue femme opened the door and was greeted by the amount of cheering going on. With a laugh, she entered the door and closed it once more.

Thank Primus the rooms in this base were soundproof!

* * *

Well, I gotta go and update some stories so I'll catch y'all later! And please review – means everything to me! BYES!


	2. Chapter 2

_Summary – When Knock Out and Arcee start to get close, everyone sees an unexpected change in themselves because of it. So its up to Windswept and her friends to see what's going on. Meanwhile, Starscream has got a couple of new Decepticons under his belt since the end of the war and he'll do whatever it takes for him to rise and become the new leader of Earth. _

While it is the weekend and I have finished most of my homework from school (Title pages are so last year!), I may as well spit out a chapter for this story. For any readers of 'The Hidden Stalker', I have finished the last chapters and they are ready to be posted. It is a matter of whether I am not focused on them and the fact that I sadly have homework to be completed.

All in all, I do not own anything other than Windswept, my OC's and this story. My second OC is making a début in this chapter and my (probably last one) other OC will show in the next chapter.

* * *

"_**Optimus to Ratchet. Requesting Groundbridge.**_"

Ratchet had to pull away from his focus on his work when the Prime's voice came through the com-link. So close, they were! They were _so_ close to figuring out what was causing the alarm to flash. And so far, they found nothing on Earth or throughout the solar system so that had to mean one place.

Cybertron.

They were starting a scan over their former home world when Rafael had to go home. And the boy still continued at home, finding information and sending it to the medic and Soundwave, who were beginning to pull an all-nighter. And that was when Optimus commed in.

"Coming Optimus." Ratchet had to press cancel on his scan that had nearly been completed. He was going to have to start it up later and that could take ages to restart an already started scan.

The Groundbridge swirled to life when Ratchet locked onto Optimus' signal and where he was located. A blue and red truck roared through the Groundbridge followed by a silver and purple space jet. The two transformed into their bipedal forms as the medic pulled the switch up to close the portal. It was a nice sight to see Optimus and Megatron speaking on good terms and working together to protect Earth. Although they never really figured out why Megatron gave up. Of course he gave a reason, but they didn't believe that reason.

Maybe he just got bored of his losses.

Optimus' optics searched around the base. Where was everyone? Ratchet saw the question in his old friend's optics.

"They're in the training room. Knock Out and Smokescreen started a war over dignity and I told them to take it in there. Everyone else followed them except Windswept who's gone to see Aquastrike and Starlight."

"Come on then, dear brother. We shall see who is getting the better of who," Megatron decided as he slowly made his way to hallway. He only stopped when he saw that his brother was hesitating.

"Go Optimus." Ratchet wasn't in the mood to have the Prime looking over his shoulder and see what he was up to. And he wanted Optimus to get involved with everyone else now that there was nothing to stress about.

"Do I have to?"

"Yes, you do!" Ratchet growled and with that, Optimus made up his mind and wandered off with Megatron.

No one was going to get all pouty around Ratchet and get away with it, that's for sure. Ratchet made sure of it!

"Optimus, why so anti-social?" Megatron asked as the two slowly walked down the hallway.

"I could ask the same about, my brother."

"I asked first."

Optimus chuckled lightly as he removed his mouth guard, "Megatron, I was a simple mech under the name of Orion Pax. Now I am Optimus Prime – my days of having fun were over the day the war started."

Megatron hummed, "I do apologise for letting the evil inside of me get the better. Had I known how to control my anger, we might not be standing on this very planet today."

And Optimus couldn't argue with that. During their travels, they walked past the stored relics. The Autobots were wary of letting their former enemies near their weapons thinking of it to be an ambush. However, the former evil Cybertronians proved their wariness wrong. After passing the phase shifter, the two stumbled upon a Insecticon pod. Upon closer inspection, Megatron was agape.

"I was wondering where that traitorous femme disappeared to."

"At least Arcee's revenge didn't cloud her judgement that time. And I am thankful she learnt her lesson."

"Ahhh yes, that small femme under the name of Arcee. She is quite the beauty, isn't she," Megatron commented, causing Optimus to hold his step. He was feeling a feeling he shouldn't have been feeling. He's a Prime, isn't he?

"You are saying that Arcee is a beautiful femme?"

"Of course. It's a wonder that she hasn't made a commitment to anyone yet," Megatron wondered.

Optimus continued walking, faster than normal, "Arcee had two very close partners killed during the war. One before her optics by Airachnid. And one by Starscream on the same day we meet our human friends."

"I was surprised when I returned from space to find that Starscream had killed Cliffjumper," Megatron began, before he heard Optimus growl lightly, "But that is matter to never be discussed of again."

The two walked in silence after that and Megatron knew why. He crossed the line with bringing up the death of Cliffjumper and the former Decepticon hated himself for it. He looked up at Optimus, their pace slowing to a normal speed.

"You seem to tense up whenever I bring up Arcee and anything about her. Are you sure you're feeling okay?" Megatron asked as Optimus stopped completely.

"Megatron, I am not in the best mood to discuss in matters with you tonight. Ask me tomorrow and maybe you will get some answers," Optimus insisted, tired of Megatron talking about the war and femmes.

"I am sorry, Optimus."

They came across the training room doors, but before they could enter, a femme appeared in front of them. She was the smallest of all Cybertronians on this planet, her helm only just a few inches shorter than Arcee's. Her upper body was white with little pink flames that went down her arm and legs. She also had pink flames on her winglets. On the insides of her hands, she had one little pink flower. And on the top of her helm, she had a gold star.

"Evening Optimus and Megatron," the femme spoke as she bowed before them.

"Starlight, please. There is no need to bow before us. We are just two simple mechs, that is all," Megatron insisted as Starlight stood up straight.

"O-Of course, I apologise. I was just on my way to the Energon storeroom to get a couple of cubes for me and my friends. Do you guys want anything while I'm down there?" Starlight asked.

"No thank you, Starlight. But thank you for the offer," Optimus answered as the femme waved goodbye and walked away.

Optimus was quite surprised at how the femme has changed. During the war, Starlight was shy and timid Autobot and could only trust her friends. It was because of her sister turning to dark side and her mother being killed before her. But now that the war had ended, everyone saw a happier and a bit crazier side of Starlight. It was best to keep her away from the high grade when they could.

"Forget Arcee, that Starlight is someone to keep an eye out for," Megatron whistled as he watched her turn left.

Optimus rolled his optics and entered the room with Megatron behind him and what they saw shocked them.

Knock Out had Smokescreen pinned onto the ground, his knee on his front while everyone was counting down. Energon cubes were placed on the tables, some splattered on the floor. Jack and Miko were surprisingly still at base, sitting on Arcee's and Bulkhead's shoulder as they yelled for either Knock Out or Smokescreen.

"I told ya being with Windswept would make ya soft!" Knock Out crowed as everyone was counting down the last two numbers.

Suddenly, Smokescreen kicked Knock Out from behind, sending the mech onto the ground above him onto his front. Instantly, the rookie bounced up and pinned the medic to the ground, Smokescreen's knee on his back and holding his servos so that there was no escape.

"Yeah? I also said that being with her has made me stronger!" Smokescreen yelled.

"THREE...TWO...ONE!"

"THE ROOKIE WINS!" Wheeljack cheered as everyone clapped.

Smokescreen slowly got up, putting pressure on the mech below him as he stepped on his back. Knock Out sighed in defeat as he slowly got up himself, but instead he rolled onto his back in shame. He was out of breathe from being beaten by the rookie. A medic like him was never going to succeed into defeating a mech like Smokescreen. Maybe next time.

As everyone dispersed into small groups, he closed his optics and rested where he was. But his rest was short-lived when he heard a voice speak to him.

"Need a hand?"

His optics flashed opened to see Arcee, her arms crossed and starring down at him, waiting for him to answer. The mech gaped as he looked at her beauty. Just by the way she was standing was making him churn inside. The femme looked hot from this angle. Shaking his head, he held out his hand, watched as Arcee's smaller one took it and helped him up.

Once on his pedes, the mech looked down at the femme, "You're stronger than I realise. Maybe I should've taken you on."

"Hey, if you got destroyed by Smokescreen, then you would've had no chance against me!" Arcee laughed as she turned her back walked away to the corner of the room and grabbing a cube of Energon on the way.

Knock Out, unknowingly to himself, followed her. He was under her spell. She was vicious, but he liked vicious and he felt himself drawn to it. And the former Decepticon wondered why no other mech was.

Optimus watched from his seat as Megatron and Dreadwing talked beside him. He watched Knock Out and Arcee converse in the corner, a hand sometimes drifting over the others arm and vice versa. Just what were they up to was what Optimus wanted to know.

"So Arcee, I can't help but admit that you are a beautiful femme. A mech like no other would be drawn to your fire-"

"What's your point Knock Out?" Arcee asked impatiently as she saw Optimus looking over. She smiled at him but he turned away and faced Megatron and Dreadwing without a smile back. Before she could see more, Knock Out blocked her view.

"I was wondering Arcee, if you would like me to take you out on a date?" Knock Out asked nervously.

Arcee's optics widened, "You mean, like a human date?"

"Human or Cybertronian, whatever you decide."

* * *

So. I guess that's it for now. Please read, review and anything else – it means everything to me. And it inspires me to write more chapters and stories. But it will only happen if I get emails saying someone has posted a review or is now following this story.

LATERS!


	3. Chapter 3

_Summary – When Knock Out and Arcee start to get close, everyone sees an unexpected change in themselves because of it. So its up to Windswept and her friends to see what's going on. Meanwhile, Starscream has got a couple of new Decepticons under his belt since the end of the war and he'll do whatever it takes for him to rise and become the new leader of Earth. _

Ughhh, school is getting in the way guys and I don't like it! Its keeping me away from here and posting chapters. And now things are getting worse cause now I have a sore throat and I can hardly talk to anyone without coughing and hurting my throat. Sigh.

On another note, Transformers: Robots In Disguise 2015 will air its first episode in March 14th in America. If you are in Australia and New Zealand (like myself), then us lucky people will see it on Cartoon Network on February 21st. Write these dates down peoples! NOW!

\- I only own my OC's Windswept and Starlight (My last OC (for now) is now being debuted in this chapter so I will add her in the next chapter).  
\- I also own the plot line to this story.  
\- Transformers Prime does not belong to me sadly. All characters and the show itself belongs to its amazing creators.

* * *

Arcee just wanted to crawl into a hole and stay there. The way she acted when Knock Out asked her out on a date just made things between them a whole lot worse and she felt sick in her core...

_Arcee hesitated when Knock Out asked her that. A date?! Knock Out wanted to take her out on a date. Did he really see her as a potential mate? Was Arcee supposed to be flattered by the offer? Did he do because it was the human way to tell someone their feelings for them? So many questions swirled in her head and it caused her stumble in her footing._

"_Whoa! You okay there, Cee?" Knock Out as he helped her stand._

_Arcee pushed him away, "I don't need your help!" When everyone heard her yell, they looked towards her. She shrugged it off and looked at Knock Out with a blush._

"_I'll think about it."_

"_Just whenever, Cee. I'll be around waiting."_

_Arcee had never run out of a room so fast in her life._

'I'll think about it'. The words appeared in her head. What was she so hesitant about? It was just Knock Out. And there was nothing to worry about, right? If Smokescreen and Windswept thought it was the right time to be together, then there isn't anything wrong for them to worry about. However, the femme was feeling so unsure.

And then there was the fact that the femme wasn't so sure about. Did Arcee have feelings for Knock Out? She didn't mind him, of course. But somehow, she felt a lingering feeling whenever someone brought up the mechs name and anything more about him. But she panicked whenever she thought about someone else. She just couldn't place her finger on who it was.

Arcee sighed and smacked her helm on the wall. Life was just so complicated. And it shouldn't have been since the war was over and they were living in peace. A familiar voice then came over her com-link.

"_**Hey Cee?**_"

She sighed when it was Knock Out, "Yes?"

"_**It's getting late and Jack needs to get home. Since you...walked out, do you mind if I take him home?**_"

Arcee couldn't be any more relieved. The last thing she wanted was for Jack to be asking her all sorts of questions on why she left and more. "Thank you Knock Out, that'd be fine. Just get him straight home!"

"_**Will do. Have you thought about that 'thing' yet?**_"

"No, I'll talk to you tomorrow if I make up my mind."

"_**Okay then. Night 'Cee.**_"

"Night." With that, the com-link closed shut. Arcee slowly travelled down the hallway to her berthroom, ready for a sleepless night of thinking. Then she heard laughter coming from the end of the base. That's when she put two and two together and decided it might be best to discuss this...issue with some other femmes.

* * *

"'Shut up, Star! Its not funny!"

"Yes it is!" Starlight whispered as she laughed harder. The pink and white femme saw Windswept trying to keep a straight face, but with them looking at her, it was harder so she gave up and let out all the laughing she had held in.

Aquastrike sighed and stood up. She was an aqua blue femme with black stripes down her door-wings and legs. She was quite a bulky femme, but she still carried some feminine traits. She was Bulkhead's height and was quite the jumpy femme also. The femme walked over to a jug and poured more of the high grade into her cube before walking back and sitting down on a beanbag beside the couch.

"Look, all I did was attempt to tell Bulkhead how I feel about him. And then I tripped over something and we fell onto the ground, me ending up falling onto his chassis. Then I ran away screaming in embarrassment. How is that funny?"

Starlight and Windswept didn't understand how Aquastrike couldn't think of what she did was funny. In the end, they gave up when Aquastrike gave them a glare that told them to.

"Okay, 'Swept," the bulky femme said, turning to her friend lying on the couch, her pedes dangling off the armrest.

"I'm listening!" Windswept answered as she placed her cube of high grade on the table in front of her.

"Truth Or Dare or Would You Rather?"

"Hmmm, Would You Rather?"

Aquastrike smiled and struggled to contain a laugh as she spoke, "Would you rather be attacked by an Insecticon or be squashed by Bulkhead?"

"Aww, you're mean!" Windswept pouted as she pointed at her lazily, "About Bulkhead I mean."

"Well, he is quite...big..."

Cue the endless laughter from Starlight. Aquastrike and Windswept just looked at her as she exploded in tears of laughing too hard. Why was Starlight so immature? Them and everyone else couldn't figure it out.

"Starlight!" That was when Starlight sobered up a little– she wasn't to keen on people calling her by her full name because that was when she knew she was in trouble. So Starlight ended her laughter. For now.

"Well, since I hate battling Insecticons because they are soooooo perverted-" She paused when her friends hummed in agreement, "-So I guess being squished by Bulkhead would be slightly better."

As the trio conversed, they failed to notice Arcee coming around the corner. But the femme paused before they could even see her anyway. She watched them talk with big smiles on their faces. She longed for their happiness.

"Arcee is looking a bit down lately, don't cha think?" Starlight began, waving around an Energon cube.

"Yeah, she is looking a bit tense," Aquastrike agreed, "I mean, the war is over but its like she's wanting something or someone else."

"Oh come on!" Windswept groaned as she swung her legs around so that she was sitting normally on the couch, "All she needs a good frag. Everyone knows that a femme gets tense when they haven't been with someone intimately in a while. Go tell a mech that she needs an interface and then she'll be happy just as much as the mech will be. Heck, maybe she'll fall in love finally!"

"How nice of you to say, 'Swept." Windswept's servos flew to her face when Arcee said that. Even Starlight and Aquastrike cringed and Starlight was in a wacky mood!

"Whoopsie!" the youngest femme yelled.

"I am sooooooo sorry, 'Cee! I had no idea that you were standing there. Please forgive me!" Windswept begged as she faced the femme.

"Ehh, maybe you're right," Arcee sighed as she down beside the blue and red femme, "I probably could do with someone in my life right now. You've got Smoke and I have no idea what these two have. But it looks like they could use a mech themselves!"

"HEY!" Aquastrike yelled, offended by the comment.

"Not called for," Starlight whispered with an angry tone.

"Nah, I know who they want, but I''ll tell you later," Windswept joked, whispering the last part before turning serious, "So what brings ya here? Is it those Energon cookies I mentioned earlier?" Windswept brought a plate up to Arcee of said Energon cookies.

Arcee took one before Windswept placed them back on the table, "Thanks, but no, its not for these cookies. It's a relationship problem."

"Oooohh," Starlight and Aquastrike whistled teasingly before shutting up when Arcee and Windswept glared at them both, "Sorry."

"Who's the lucky mech?"

"Well, I'll start from the start-"

Arcee told her story about how she approached Knock Out and helped him up before she explained the conversation she had with him. She also brought up how Optimus harshly turned away from her when she smiled. Then she told them how Knock Out had asked her out on a date and the way she reacted to it.

Starlight was about to express her on opinions, but as she opened her mouth, Windswept spoke with a shout.

"NO WAY!" Arcee jumped when the femme yelled, but she let her continue, "This could end badly if you say yes."

"How?" Starlight asked, confused.

"For starters, what if he tries to lead Jack into more racing? I mean, it could get nasty if Knock Out starts to get him into dangerous situations where his life could be put in danger. There's also the fact that he flirts with all the femmes – jealousy is a bad thing in a relationship and then next thing you know you break up and get all depressed-"

"WHOA! Back up! You do know Smokescreen gets jealous whenever you flirt with all the other mechs apart from Optimus, Ratchet and Megatron right?!" Aquastrike asked with a slight smirk.

"He knows and he told me that he doesn't really care. Just as long as I don't break up with him, I'm good!" Windswept answered.

"I never said that."

Windswept cringed when she heard her beloveds voice. The others just smirked as they all faced Smokescreen, the mech leaning up against the door frame. He had a look of wonder on his face after Windswept said what she said. And he knew that she knew that she was in trouble.

Placing her Energon cube on the table and grabbing a couple of Energon cookies, Windswept's lips turned into a thin line before she spoke, "Gotta go."

"Night Windswept!" The girls chorused as she left the room with Smokescreen trailing after her. They let out a laugh when they did leave. Then they became serious – they had a problem to deal with.

"Don't listen to her!" Arcee watched as Starlight got up from her beanbag and lazily wandered over to the couch where she sat beside Arcee with a wobble, "Listen to your spark!" She slurred as she pointed at Arcee's spark chamber, "If you wanna take a risk, then take it. Opportunities like that don't come round often!"

"Your drunk, aren't you?"

"NO!" Starlight instantly denied, albeit with a slur, "I-I'm ok-kay!"

Arcee just looked at Aquastrike with a 'help-me!' look. The aqua blue femme just smiled, "When she's drunk, she tends to say really mature things like what she just said."

"I'M NOT DRUNK!" Starlight yelled as she smacked the table, the force knocking the plate of Energon cookies on the floor. She looked at them with pout on her face, "Awww man!"

"I'm with Star on this one, just listen to your spark. It'll tell you what to do," Aquastrike shrugged as she grabbed Starlight and threw her over her shoulder, "Come on Star. Time for bed!"

"I don't wanna go to bed!" Starlight screamed as Aquastrike walked out of the room. Arcee just laughed and watched.

"Hey, don't pick up all the mess we made. I'll come back and do it!" Aquastrike called from the hallway.

Arcee sighed and waited a few moments in thought. Once she had made up her mind, she got up and started walking to the door, knowing that she need to tell Knock Out what she felt about him.

_CRUNCH!_

Arcee moved her foot away to see squished Energon cookies on the ground. Her optics closed and then opened in irritation.

"Great."

* * *

Typical Aquastrike.

The femme always said she was going to do something. But she never came back to do it. And that's what had happened. Arcee had left to wash the crumbs off her foot and when she walked back through, Optimus was standing in her way, a cross expression on his face.

He had pointed to the room where all the mess were and Arcee knew she had to clean it up. He left her to it and she began. But while she was washing the Energon cubes and placing them in a draw, the femme had a question that was still showing up in her mind.

How did Optimus know where she was in the first place?

Arcee never saw him leave the training room. And at that point when she did leave, the room was a mess anyway so obviously he was angry about that. But to take it out on Arcee and have her clean the mess up on her own? That was a new low for the Prime. Whether Soundwave showed him or someone told him that Arcee was the last one to leave, the femme couldn't figure it out.

Now that she was done, she was walking down the hallway to see Knock Out. Once she reached the room that was his berthroom, she knock on it silently and waited for the mech to show up. When the door opened, she smiled and saw the handsome mech with a grin on his face.

"I've thought about and I've decided to say yes."

* * *

Hmmmm, very interesting choice Arcee. Oh well, I gotta go get some rest. Not feeling to well now. But at least I got a chapter of this out to you.

OH! One more thing before I go.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

I am single, but I love it. No boyfriends, no heartbreak, nothing! And I enjoy every moment of it. Sadly however, a guy has recently expressed his love for me and I gotta find away to let him down gently. But never let a guy or girl stand in the way! If you are single and loving it every day, then good on ya for having a life!

And to everyone who has someone, I hope you guys have a great Valentines and cherish each other like there's no tomorrow. If they are truly 'the one', then I know you guys will have a good day anyway!

BYES!


	4. Chapter 4

_Summary – When Knock Out and Arcee start to get close, everyone sees an unexpected change in themselves because of it. So its up to Windswept and her friends to see what's going on. Meanwhile, Starscream has got a couple of new Decepticons under his belt since the end of the war and he'll do whatever it takes for him to rise and become the new leader of Earth. _

Hello, hello! Been an interesting week for me. Had its ups and downs. One down is sadly bullying. But it was resolved as soon as it was started. Although I don't believe that they meant their apology. However, an up that I had was getting an award for science at the Year 10 (9th Grade) Assembly. Was a bit surprised mainly because science is not my strong point. But an award is an award and I'll accept it either way.

\- Windswept, Starlight and Aquastrike all belong to me.

\- I also own the plot line to this story.

\- Transformers Prime does not belong to me sadly. All characters and the show itself belongs to its amazing creators.

* * *

"Morning everyone."

Everyone turned to the hallway where a wobbly Starlight was slowly walking from. The femme had her hands on the wall so that she wouldn't fall over. After waking and rushing to the bathrooms to flush out her tanks, she decided to head to the main room. When she heard giggling, she looked up so suddenly that she groaned and held her forehead. That's when she remembered what state she was in last night.

She was drunk.

"Hello Starlight." Now knowing that she was hungover, she slowly looked up to see Aquastrike and Windswept looking at her with smirks. Aquastrike had her arms crossed while the blue and red femme had her hands on her hips.

"Ratchet? Is it just me or am I actually seeing four Aquastrikes and Windswepts?" Starlight asked as she shook her head to get rid of the dizziness, only to groan when her helm ached in the action.

"Primus, I hope there's only one of each!" Ratchet mumbled as he helped Starlight to the medical berth and gave her a special brew of Energon.

"Hey Aqua?" Aquastrike turned around at her nickname and was met by Arcee, who looked very annoyed.

"Thanks for cleaning up last night."

"I'm so sorry!" The aqua blue femme apologised quickly, "Star was so drunk that when I put her in her berth, she just kept getting up and screaming. I'm so thankful that these rooms were soundproof. By the time she had finally gone, I went back to clean up but it was already clean."

"Yeah. I had to do 'cause Optimus saw the mess you guys made," Arcee grumbled with a sour look on her face.

"I'll go tell him that we made the mess." And with that, Aquastrike stomped over to the Prime and spoke to him.

When Arcee turned to face Windswept, the latter had grabbed the blue femmes are and ran down the hallway where she nearly threw Arcee into the wall. Arcee was lucky to regain her footing before looking up at Windswept with a 'what-the-hell' look.

"So...what did you say to Knock Out?"

Arcee rolled her optics and smiled. She had to tell Windswept this. Her only issue was that the femme would blurt it out to everyone because the she can't keep a secret. And besides, they'd find out eventually anyway. So what was the point?

"I said yes!" Windswept's mouth opened in shock. When her jaw would not lift to close, Arcee had to gently pull up her jaw up.

"I'd say that you made a bad choice, but it's not my place to comment. Uhmmm, congrats?" Windswept congratulated awkwardly.

"Thank you," Arcee smiled as the two walked back to the main room slowly, "He's gonna take me to a cafe-sorta place at lunch, then we're gonna drive and just talk. And later on, when the sun's setting, we're gonna just watch it together."

"Talk about romantic!" Windswept laughed before becoming serious, "Okay, a couple of things: A), by café, do you mean the place where Jack works? KO or something?"

"...Maybe..."

"Trust Knock Out to find a place that is named after his initials," Windswept muttered before looking at Arcee, "B) Drive and talk?"

"Yeah, just a simple drive. We're gonna drive to the other side of town, not this side and just talk."

"Okay," Windswept slowly nodded, "And C) by watching the sunset, you mean making out?"

Arcee's optics widened as she looked at her friend. She was got to be kidding right? Arcee hopped so, "'Swept! We're just taking things slow. We haven't discussed kissing and interfacing-"

"I've heard enough!" Windswept cringed, "Just do whatever you guys wanna do, but just be careful."

"What are you? My mother?" Arcee asked with a strange look on her faceplates.

"You're older than me!" Windswept yelled, "But you were looking out for me when me and Smoke got together. I'm just being sure to return the favour."

Arcee looked at her with a dry smile, "I was that overbearing?"

"You have no idea."

"Anyway, I'm leaving at two so I better go get Jack. I hope he's not working today or I'm screwed!" With a laugh, Arcee transformed and took off.

Windswept was worried however. So she placed a finger on her audio receptor and spoke in the com-link, "Aqua. Star. Girls meeting at half past one!"

* * *

"So she's doing this because of you Starlight?"

When Aquastrike and Starlight heard of the emergency meeting, they rushed to their hang-out room to see what was wrong. Well, Aquastrike rushed; Starlight slowly wandered over there. The special brew Ratchet made was a formula that helped the pain of hangover away and it took several hours to be processed fully.

Starlight looked up to Windswept with a confused faceplate, "What?"

"Star, you said that Arcee should go for it and follow her spark. And something about how those opportunities like that don't come 'round often," Aquastrike explained.

"I said that?" Starlight asked. With a shake of her head, she placed her head into her hand that was leaning on her knee. She sighed and muttered, "What a surprise."

"Star, I really wish you'd use that maturity when you're NOT drunk. Please?"

"I'm sorry 'Swept," Starlight apologised, "But you know I get outta hand when I'm drunk!"

"Pssh, don't rub it in!" Aquastrike sarcastically groaned.

"Guys its ten to," Windswept noticed as she headed to the exit of the room, "We've gotta go after them!"

* * *

"After you Madame," Knock Out purred as he opened the doors to the KO Diner.

Arcee smiled as she walked, wearing her normal leather suit she always wore on her motorcycle. The two had decided to take both their vehicles just in case something was near them and they had to get rid of it. But it was only a precaution since the Decepticons were no longer and MECH had been disbanded.

Knock Out followed her, wearing a tight red t-shirt and black jeans. The t-shirt was so that he could show off his human muscles to Arcee, who at first was very impressed. He laughed it off and believed that he was stronger than some of the other Cybertronians. Arcee didn't believe him and she ended up laughing.

The two walked over to a booth in the corner where they were able to keep an eye on their vehicle forms just in case a rogue Decepticon was near by. On the way over, they grabbed a menu each so that they could order. They sat across from each other, smiles on their faces.

"So, you come here often?" Knock Out purred with a wink. He watched Arcee's movements, which include her hand rubbing her forehead as she chuckled.

"Only to drop off and pick up Jack when he's working," Arcee purred back.

Knock Out shook his head and laughed, "I mean, for a date or something else,"

Arcee's eyes widened and then a chuckle escaped her lips, "No, I'm one of those loner types, you know?"

"I wouldn't believe it for a second!"

As the two conversed and laughed, they failed to notice three familiar figures walking in and taking a seat opposite them. One of the girls, who had blonde hair with the odd pink streak and wearing a baby pink singlet with a grey one underneath, short denim shorts and converse was wearing pin-rimmed tinted sunglasses and kept looking down. Obviously, we know who this was.

"Guys, this is ridiculous!" Starlight whispered as she held her head.

"I agree with Hungover." Starlight smacked Aquastrike on the arm when her closest friend said that, "Why can't we waste our time on some video games or driving or something?"

"Yeah. Somewhere I can stay out of the sun and away from high grade!"

"Man, just how hungover are you?" Aquastrike asked with a bizarre look on her face as she watched her friend pull out a hat and stick it on her head.

"Focus guys!" Windswept yelled at them as she pulled her black black hair with the odd red streak back into a ponytail so that it was off her face. She was wearing a red open checkered shirt with a white singlet underneath, black skinny jeans and light brown heeled boots that went just above the ankle, making the short femme slightly taller.

"Calm down 'Swept!" Aquastrike yelled as she adjusted her singlet. She was wearing a white singlet with a zig-zag pattern around it that was different shades of blue, pale aqua blue jeans and light brown wedges. The two girls told her to shush instantly.

A few minutes passed before a brown-haired girl of the age of a possible 18 appeared with a note pad and pencil, "Welcome to KO Drive-In, where the patties are a knock out. May I take your order?"

Starlight answered almost instantly, "A bottle of water please!"

"Actually, make that three," Windswept muttered impatiently, trying to get rid of the girl so that they could focus on what they came in for.

"Okay, three waters. Anything else?" The girl asked as she wrote something in her notepad.

Aquastrike hummed and looked at the menu, "Yeah, can I have the-"

"NO! Nothing else, thank you!" Windswept answered, jolting her two friends as they looked at her. Starlight just shook her head, the loudness hurting her head.

"I'll be back soon with the drinks." With that, the girl wandered away to the counter.

Aquastrike looked at her friend with a snarl, "What the frag, 'Swept?"

"Just shut up and keep an eye on them!" Windswept growled as they continued to watch what was happening opposite them.

* * *

Two hours passed. Three empty bottles of water were on the table as well as three empty packets of chips. Starlight was playing with the last chip she had grabbed from her bag, pulling it apart and sniffing it.

"Human food always surprises me."

Windswept looked up instantly, moving Aquastrikes head from her shoulder as the latter snored loudly. When she was pushed to the other side, she woke up with a jolt.

"I'm awake!"

Windswept looked towards the opposite booth where Knock Out and Arcee were supposed to be. There was a problem however, and that problem was that Knock Out and Arcee weren't there any more. And this freaked Windswept out.

"Guys, they've gone!" the blue and red haired girl yelled as she got up and began walking out.

Aquastrike and Starlight followed her as the waitress ran to them when they exited out the door, a furious look on her face.

"HEY! You're supposed to pay for that!" She was shocked when she couldn't see the three girls. With a sigh, she walked back in and began getting her wallet out.

Outside, the three girls hadn't disappeared really. Their holoforms had fizzled out and had returned to their vehicle forms. Once their engines had started up, they drove off and followed the blue and red femme.

"'Swept, we don't get it. Why are you so worried about Arcee and Knock Out together?" Aquastrike asked as they headed out onto the highway.

"Because I believe that Knock Out has a little bit of Decepticon left in him. Even after a month, I still can't trust them guys. I'm sorry, but I really can't," Windswept explained.

"Everyone's in the same boat – I've overheard Dreadwing saying that he thinks we're just planning an attack on them," Starlight added.

"We understand 'Swept. I mean, after you're history with Knock Out-"

"That's none of your business!" Windswept growled as she sped up, forcing the two girls behind her to sped up also.

"And what Knock Out and Arcee do are NONE of your business. Just let them be happy and together in peace, okay? And if something happens, then you know you'll be there for Arcee to comfort her," Starlight decided.

Windswept paused for a couple of seconds, thinking over what Starlight had said. She sighed and finally spoke, "Maybe you're right Star. Its really not my business."

"Good," Starlight said, "Now come, lets get out of this sun and back to base." With that, the pink and white motorcycle sped off and headed down to where the base was.

"Maybe she is more mature than we realise," Aquastrike mentioned as the two followed Starlight.

* * *

"Thanks for tonight Knock Out, I had a really great time."

After their lunch at the KO diner, the two got to have a small drive around the town before watching the sunset on a cliff. The scene was romantic and even though Arcee was not one for romance, she found herself enjoying every moment. Knock Out knew how to look after a femme!

"You're welcome, dearest Arcee. Just be thankful I saw those three femmes that were watching us," Knock Out laughed as they finally got to Arcee's room.

The two were quiet as they looked into each others eyes, looking for that spark that they had been feeling. By then, everyone else had gone to bed and hopefully, no one was watching them.

Arcee spoke after a few minutes, "Did you wanna come inside?"

"Only if you want me too." Arcee moved her eyes away from Knock Out and opened her door. Knock Out followed her, wondering why she wanted him in her room.

One thing that was certain was that he never left her room that night.

* * *

Things are getting interesting.

If you don't want me to spoil any part of this story, please turn away right now!

Anyways, for those who are wondering when Starscream will make an appearance in this story, I plan to add him soon. I'm guessing round about chapter 6. This story, depending on the reviews and the ideas, I am aiming to be long. But full of smallish chapters. I aim at about 5-6 pages on LibreOffice (Microsoft Word and my computer do not agree).

The peoples who don't like story spoilers can come back now!

I hope you guys have a good week and hopefully, another chapter should be out next weekend. I am aiming at one chapter each week or weekend. If not, then hopefully the second weekend. But of course, school standing in my way. :(

SEE YA!


	5. Chapter 5

_Summary – When Knock Out and Arcee start to get close, everyone sees an unexpected change in themselves because of it. So its up to Windswept and her friends to see what's going on. Meanwhile, Starscream has got a couple of new Decepticons under his belt since the end of the war and he'll do whatever it takes for him to rise and become the new leader of Earth._

Obviously I'm not doing a very good job of keeping my promises of updating once every weekend. I apologise for that but the stress of bullying and homework are getting in the way so it's a couple of things I've managed to put aside now and bring you this chapter. Again I apologise.

\- Windswept, Starlight and Aquastrike all belong to me.

\- I also own the plot line to this story.

\- Transformers Prime does not belong to me sadly. All characters and the show itself belongs to its amazing creators.

* * *

Two months passed.

Everyone was changing after the night Knock Out and Arcee had. That was because whenever the two entered the room, hand in hand, everyone and everything would just turn to silence. No one dared to mention anything about them while they were in the same room in fear of them being judged by the comments. And it had them on edge as well as silent.

Except for three certain femmes in their lounge room where they were discussing the possibilities of the silence and the behaviour of every Cybertronian.

"One of the mechs probably has a crush on her or something," Aquastrike wondered, "And they're jealous."

"As long as that mech isn't Smokescreen, I couldn't give a scrap!" Windswept shrugged, lying down on the couch, "Its not our business so why should we bother?"

"This comes from the girl who two months ago wanted to know every little detail," Starlight laughed.

Windswept sighed, "You're more mature than you realise, Star. Especially since you haven't even touched the high grade in a couple of months. What's happening there, huh? Have you broken up with you're other half?"

Starlight ignored her friends smart comment and decided to reveal her real reasons why, "I've been savin' it! Haven't you heard? A big party's coming up and I've been forced to stay away from it so that we can have it in the rec room tonight!"

Aquastrike and Windswept had mouths agape, "Tonight?!"

"Tonight! Be there or be square!" Starlight squealed as she bounced out of the room, closing the door behind her.

Aquastrike just laughed, "I bet she'll have a hangover worse than the last time! No one can keep her away from the high grade and everyone knows it!"

"Hmm," Windswept hummed, "I think I might pass it."

"WHAT!" Aquastrike yelled at her, "You have to go! We can't have a party without you, 'Swept!"

"Yeah, but Optimus probably won't be there. And what if I frag things up with Smokescreen? Come on Aqua, I don't wanna hurt him," Windswept explained with a pout.

"I'm guessing this has something do with him overhearing that you flirt with all the other mechs even when you do it with him in the room?"

"...Shut up..."

Aquastrike laughed before changing the subject, "Optimus will come 'round. He came and saw the little party the other night with Megsy. That's a slow start!"

"Yeah, but Optimus has other things to worry about. Such as making sure he's sober and making sure no ones making crucial mistakes," Windswept pointed out, "But what you said is right. What Optimus was doing was hopefully opening up and letting Orion Pax show through. Baby steps, Aqua. Baby steps."

"Haha! I overheard that he used to be a party animal back in the day! What I'd give to see him let himself loose!"

Windswept just chuckled at her friend, "I bet that includes your crush on Bulk!"

"When I say anything, I mean anything!"

"You never said that," Windswept stated dryly.

Aquastrike just stared at her blankly, "The point is I just want you to let yourself loose! For us and since the war ended three months ago! Please?"

"Ohhhh, all right," Windswept gave up as Aquastrike cheered, "Just don't let me near the high grade."

"Depends when Starlight gets there!"

Windswept faked a horror face, "Maybe she's there already."

"Let's make sure that there **is** enough for tonight and that Star's not lying to us," Aquastrike decided as she and Windswept got up and exited the room.

* * *

Arcee sighed sitting up on her berth as she watched her mech Knock Out pace left to right and so on. He was trying to get the femme to come as her 'date' to the three month anniversary party he had been planning with Starlight and Wheeljack. So far, he wasn't having much luck convincing her. And now, he was starting to get a little frustrated. Arcee was more stubborn than he realised. Maybe he should start listening to Windswept from now on.

"I said no KO," Arcee said sternly, using her mechfriend's nickname as Knock Out went down on his knees and grabbed her hand, "Why do you want me to go?"

"Because nothing is ever fun without you!" Knock Out answered as he kissed her hand, "Please Arcee!"

"No."

Knock Out sighed, "Aww come on. You're sounding like Optimus. Since he doesn't party-"

"Fine, I'll go!" Knock Out jumped when Arcee yelled at him. He was pleased that she was now coming with him. He moved up and kissed her lightly.

"Good, now come on! The party's soon to start!" With that, Knock Out helped his girlfriend up and they walked out of the room.

Little did Knock Out know that Arcee only said yes so that he would shut up about Optimus. She was nothing like him and refused to be compared to that Prime.

* * *

When Windswept and Aquastrike arrived, everyone was there apart from Optimus, Ratchet, Rafael and Soundwave. Amongst the Autobots were also Jack and Miko. As the two femme's looked around, they noticed everyone looking bored and glum. Thats when they realised who else was missing.

Starlight.

"Yo Star! Where are you?" Aquastrike asked her friend through the comlink

"_**In my berthroom. I think I might **__**pass tonight's party.**_"

"Don't you dare Starlight! You're the life of this party! And there's heap of High Grade Energon here just waiting to be drunken!" Aquastrike growled at her friend

Windswept was pleading as she could tell that Starlight wasn't listening to the aqua blue femme, "Please Star, you were the one who planned this and now you're turning into a party pooper. We can play some party games with this High Grade. I've gotta good one I know! And you should see everyone's face. They look bored as-"

Everyone turned to the door when it suddenly banged open. And there were big smiles appearing when Starlight appeared. Her hips were titled to the side and her hands were raised, one hand holding a cube of high grade and another hand was having her palm facing the roof. There was an evident smirk on the small femme's face as she spoke.

"Ladies and Gentlebots! LETS GET THIS PARTY STARTED!"

Everyone cheered as the lights flickered different colours. Wheeljack started up the music thanks to Knock Out who made a playlist of songs that everyone could dance to. Everyone started to talk and soon the noise was getting louder and louder.

"You get the feeling she just wanted to see everyone's reactions if she wasn't around, huh?" Windswept yelled to her friend over the loud music.

Aquastrike smiled at her friend, "In the words of Starlight, lets get this party going!"

* * *

Optimus watched Rafael cuddled up on the couch. The boy was sound asleep with his glasses placed weirdly on his face. His laptop wasn't on, but it was still open with papers scattered across it and the table. The Prime blinked for a moment when Ratchet came over to the boy and gently draped a human sized blanket over his body. He also lightly pressed on the laptop, closing it before returning to his work.

"Rafael's not due home until ten o'clock. I will wake him in half an hour to take him home," Ratchet muttered as he looked up at the screen.

"I am surprised by how much you notice and look after Rafael."

Ratchet's optics widened and he turned around to face his old friend, "I thought I was talking to Bumblebee."

Optimus looked at the medic with concern. He raised an optic ridge questioningly, "Bumblebee is with his friends near the back of the base. I thought you would have known that."

The orange and white Cybertronian sighed and turned to the screen once more. "I apologise Optimus. Lately I have been confused and focused on this signal on Cybertron. I am worried something is on our former planet and harming it. But I am afraid of stirring whatevers there and bringing it here to Earth where it could harm us."

"Do you recognise the signature?" Optimus questioned as he zoomed his optics in the screen, hoping to recognise it himself.

"I believe I do, but I cannot be sure until Soundwave comes back from scouting with Laserbeak," Ratchet answered with a sigh, "If this signature is what I believe it is Optimus, then our peace will be disturbed."

"Ratchet," Optimus began, now recognising the signature and remembering its horrible affects, "Windswept still managed to pull through-"

Ratchet snorted, "Barely."

Optimus was tired of the medic's negativity, "With Windswept as one of the first experimented with this...disease, we posses an advantage with the knowledge of what it does and the cure."

"I remember bringing the cure here," Ratchet smiled as he faced his old friend, "Its in my quarters." Then his smile turned into a frown at another thought, "The cure is locked with a code only Windswept knows. What if she's poisoned with it once more?!"

"I know that Windswept won't tell us simply. She will tell us when the time is right. However, when Megatron and the others joined us, he took the Cortical Psychic Patch with them-"

"Optimus! You don't understand! Using the patch will risk exposure to other innocent Cybertronians! They could collapse instantly!" Ratchet yelled in a panic, "I'm sorry Optimus, but I'm fearing that if don't get that code from Windswept, then we might lose one of own."

Optimus rested a hand on his old friend's shoulder, "Ratchet. I know how much pain you are still in. But Windswept is still thanking you everyday for saving her life. And I know that anyone else that was in Windswept's condition when she poisoned would be doing the same. Do not lose hope, my dear friend. We are here with you and we know that you are not alone if this situation turns fatal."

Ratchet huffed and turned back to the controls, "Just go Optimus. Leave me in peace."

Optimus nodded and walked away, knowing all to well that Ratchet just needed some space to cool off.

* * *

The party turned into more than just talking, dancing and drinking. After bumping a very drunk Starlight out of the way and being called clumsy and useless, Megatron, now a bit too drunk, challenged the femme to an arm wrestle. Starlight accepted it almost instantly and that's when they sat down and prepared to duel.

Dreadwing, Knock Out, Bulkhead, Smokescreen, Bumblebee and Jack stood behind Megatron, hoping that the former Decepticon Warlord would show why he was known as a gladiator. Arcee, Windswept, Aquastrike and Miko stood behind Starlight, hoping that Starlight was going to prove victorious and prove that femmes weren't as weak as mech's thought.

"It seems that when it comes to fans, I am already winning!" Megatron slurred.

"She's gonna kick your aft anyway!" Aquastrike screeched at the former Decepticon before he sent a glare at her.

Wheeljack, who decided that it might have been best to stay out of the way, was the referee. He smiled and raised his hand, "IN THREE...TWO...ONE! WRESTLE!"

Cheers began erupting from each side as Megatron and Starlight grabbed each other's hands and began the battle. At first Megatron began to ease ahead, watching Starlight's pained face as he prepared for victory. The noise was becoming a distraction to Megatron however and the femmes knew that there was hope. So Starlight jumped up onto the table and forced Megatron's hand down, earning victory as the girls cheered and danced around.

"IN YOUR FACE!" The girls yelled as Wheeljack grabbed Starlight's arm and held it up.

"STARLIGHT WINS!"

"And that," Starlight began, jumping off the table and wobbling a little bit as she placed all feet back on the ground. Aquastrike had to stabilize her as the pink and white femme continued, "Is how you win!"

Megatron huffed and walked away with a wobble as Starlight trailed after him, teasing him to no end. Arcee laughed before she felt arms she was becoming familiar to wrapped around her waist.

"Maybe we should leave before we make a mistake."

Arcee was surprised, "How very mature of you." The femme moved so that she was now facing Knock Out. She had stand on the tip of her toes to reach Knock Out's lips. Damn him for being taller than her.

"Hey guys!"

Damn Windswept for ruining the moment.

Arcee pulled away as she smiled at Windswept and Smokescreen, Windswept took one look behind her before moving out of Arcee's view. Across the room, Starlight and Megatron were dancing closely as everyone else continued talking.

"We're just about to leave! What are you guys up to?" Arcee yelled over the music.

Smokescreen coughed loudly, "We're doing the same thing! Are you guys interested in a small drink?"

"Not tonight, Smokey! We're calling it a night!" Knock Out huffed as he pulled Arcee with him to the exit.

Smokescreen pouted, "No one calls me Smokey!"

"Shut up you!" Windswept yelled as she watched Starlight and Megatron still dancing, "Maybe we should take Star to her room and rest before she gets an aching helm for the rest of this week!"

"Aqua's here and she'll look out for her!" Smokescreen insisted as pulled his beloved to the door, "Come on, I want to go to berth."

Windswept starred at him dryly, "Really? You want me for berth?!"

Smokescreen's optics softened, "Just to cuddle with..."

"I can't say no to that!" Windswept decided as the two left the room, knowing that Starlight was in good hands with Aquastrike watching every move the pink and white femme makes.

However, Aquastrike was talking to someone else. And that someone else was Bulkhead. And most people knew that Bulkhead was a distraction to Aquastrike and already it was working.

* * *

So that's it for now. Hopefully I can get another chapter I next week.

BYES!


	6. Chapter 6

_Summary – When Knock Out and Arcee start to get close, everyone sees an unexpected change in themselves because of it. So its up to Windswept and her friends to see what's going on. Meanwhile, Starscream has got a couple of new Decepticons under his belt since the end of the war and he'll do whatever it takes for him to rise and become the new leader of Earth. _

Hello! Well, I'm very tired and it is still daytime. Sigh, what's a writer to do. Well, I know what I will do and that is post a chapter for one of my favourite stories of course! And this chapter is a wee bit longer just because I haven't been keeping my promise of updating once a week. Maybe I should just change it to once every fortnight. It'd certainly work for me since I have about two weeks left till the holidays! YIPPEE!

Anyways, let's get rolling!

\- Windswept, Starlight and Aquastrike all belong to me.

\- I also own the plot line to this story.

\- Transformers Prime does not belong to me sadly. All characters and the show itself belongs to its amazing creators.

* * *

In the darkness of night, a silent figure wandered the desert. The figure was known to us though. He was known to everyone. His raspy voice let out a sigh as he kicked a small rock out of the way. His wings twitched as he thought of how he ended up this way. Alone.

He was practically doomed.

Starscream looked up as he wandered under the familiar arch. On the horizon, he found the place that he had been calling home for a while. The Harbinger. Complete with all that he needed, a Groundbridge, medical supplies and working controls. There was one thing missing from this the deserted ship.

Energon.

Starscream searched high and low for what he and every other Cybertronian craved and needed. He could only find the tiniest scrap of it and he only barely got away with it.

With Optimus and Megatron now working together, there was nothing left to fight for. But Starscream knew there was one thing left that could keep them all happy. And that was if Cybertron was alive.

So Starscream decided that when he was stronger with endless stacks of Energon, he'd search for other Decepticons still wanting their home.

But as soon as he entered the Harbinger, an alarm was set off. Maybe his plans were being kicked off earlier than he wanted to. Starscream hummed as he placed the Energon on a berth and looked at the screen. A signal was flashing and that could only mean one thing.

A Cybertronian signal was alive on Cybertron

Starscream was cautious as he took to the skies. This could be a trick and he knew that if he wasn't careful, the silver mech would be doomed and would possibly have to live as a slave. He had suffered enough and he didn't want to be a slave to anyone. It was one of the many reasons why he left the Decepticons and tackled the world on his own. That and that ruthless Airachnid were the two main ones.

The darkness that was space was comforting along with the twinkling of stars. Although Starscream found this stupid, he always believed that each star represented a human who had lost their life. Now and then, he would find a new star, knowing that a life had just been taken away.

"What do we have here?" Starscream asked himself in a mutter as he flew closer to Cybertron. His scanners were going crazy. Obviously it wasn't just a Cybertronian, but something else.

The silver mech stuttered as he watched a familiar space jet enter a green and blue Spacebridge. Starscream quickly deactivated his sensors, knowing that if he wanted to, Soundwave would be able to track him. That wasn't what Starscream wanted.

As he entered Cybertron, he followed the path of where the signals were emanting from. The scanners were out of control. There were two signals now and something unknown to him flashed also.

It was then that he reached a familiar sight. All those years ago were he left someone behind that he shouldn't have. The Decepticon he left behind was a key asset to the game, but now that there's nothing left to the game, Starscream was hoping that that very important Decepticon as well as some other players would return to the playing field.

Starscream transformed and wandered over the wreckage that was the Spacebridge. The same bridge that Arcee and Cliffjumper took to Earth to escape Cybertron. Starscream laughed as he remembered the day that he took Cliffjumper's spark. He remembered the day Arcee figured it out and nearly scrapped him to death for it. Man that femme had some issues!

Starscream flinched and turned behind him when he heard a noise. He looked around, zooming in to make sure nothing was stalking him. Once he felt that it was safe, he turned back around and was meet with a familiar face that shocked him.

* * *

Eyes opened and looked. They closed once more. Then the femme groaned and onlined her optics permanently. Her helm was pounding viciously, like the Cybertronian equivalent to a train rammed into her helm. A million times. She tried to get up but something was holding her down.

Starlight gasped as she saw the arm wrapped around her waist. She followed the arm up and behind her and nearly screamed at the sight.

Megatron.

He was sleeping contently, meaning that he hadn't woke up yet. Starlight held her helm and sighed. How did things end up this way?

She looked around and she knew that this wasn't her room. Then she looked at her body. The armour had come off and was scattered all over the room. Starlight groaned once more; she slipped out from under Megatron's large and silver-grey arm and slowly stood up to grab her armour.

She was going to have to learn her lesson some day. Today just wasn't that day.

* * *

Bulkhead and Wheeljack groaned as they sat in the main room. Ratchet had just given them the special Energon that they watched Starlight take nearly every fortnight. Speaking of Starlight, they looked at each other and they wondered how the femme was doing.

"Man you guys are so out of it!" Miko yelled, almost laughing as she and Jack heard them groan at the loudness of her voice.

"Miko, please!" Wheeljack whimpered as he held his helm with the ice pack Ratchet gave him.

"You guys were pretty drunk last night though," Jack smirked.

Bulkhead grumbled in annoyance, "We weren't that drunk!"

"Dude!" Miko was almost laughing, "You trying to slide around on the floor and acting like Skipper off the 'Penguins of Madagascar!"

"Ohhhhh."

Wheeljack snorted, "Haha, at least I didn't do anything that stupid!"

"Uhhhh Jackie?" Jack began, "You were acting like Rico!"

Wheeljack was confused, "Oh, and what does he do?"

"He vomits up useful things for the penguins to use," Miko pointed out dryly as Wheeljack looked up at her.

"What was I trying to hawk up?"

"Grenades."

Wheeljack groaned and looked down, embarrassed by what he had done the night before. Bulkhead looked up at Miko with questioning optics, "How did you even know what we were up to last night anyway? You guys left almost straight after the arm wrestle!"

Miko was in fits of laughing so Jack spoke for her, "Aquastrike. She sent us video clips of you guys to our phones. Gotta admit though, they were pretty...interesting."

The two Autobots were keen to remember that name and also made a little note to talk to her when they were feeling better.

* * *

"SHOCKWAVE?!"

Starscream couldn't believe his eyes. Standing before him was the one-eyed Decepticon scientist, looking very healthy like nothing happened. The former SIC of the Decepticons was petrified as he stood before him. How did he survive the Spacebridge explosion all those years ago?

"Starscream. It has been some time," Shockwave greeted before turning away and grabbing some equipment.

"H-How have you been?" Starscream asked with a stutter, still not believing that before him was Shockwave.

Shockwave turned around, "I sense your stuttering. Do you wish to discuss something else?"

"NO!" Starscream yelled in panic. The one-eyed Decepticon didn't flinch at the seeker's yelling. Starscream looked down, "May I accompany you on whatever you are doing?"

Shockwave at first wanted to tell the seeker to frag off. But the one-eyed mech had overheard of the end of the war. He decided that since he was still keen on continuing this war, he better show Starscream what he had been up to. Shockwave transformed and drove away slowly.

Starscream hummed to himself, "One of those." He transformed into his fighter jet form and slowly trailed behind the scientist.

* * *

The Groundbridge swirled to life as Ratchet waited for the Cybertronians on the other side to appear. Optimus and Soundwave waited too as Arcee and Knock Out talked in the corner, smiles too obvious to ignore. They all were waiting for Smokescreen and Windswept to walk through with more Energon.

And then they appeared with smiles as well, carting around Energon. Optimus was getting tired of everyone smiling so much – why couldn't he have someone to smile about?

"Arcee, help Windswept and Smokescreen collect the Energon," Optimus instructed.

Arcee nodded and pulled Knock Out to help her. They chatted quietly with small laughs. But Optimus wasn't having any of it.

"Knock Out. Where do you think you're going?"

Knock Out didn't stutter when he turned around to face the Prime, "I was going to help Arcee and the others. They can't do it by themselves." Knock Out turned around and attempted to walk to the Groundbridge. He was stopped again.

"I'm afraid that is NOT an option. You are scheduled for patrol," Optimus announced. When Knock Out sighed in irritation, Optimus growled, "Everyone does their share of duty. I suggest you follow through before you find yourself cleaning the wash-racks, something that I am sure you do not want to do."

Knock Out gave Arcee a kiss goodbye before transforming and driving away through the exit in a huff. Skids marks showed his anger. Arcee looked at Optimus angrily.

"You better have a reason why you got angry at Knock Out. He didn't do anything!"

"Do **you** want to clean the wash-racks?"

Arcee sighed and entered the Groundbridge to help Windswept and Smokescreen. Once they were gone, Optimus looked at Ratchet and Soundwave, the medic with a hint of concern for his friend.

"Optimus? Have you been having a lack of recharge?"

Optimus blinked, "No Ratchet. Why do you ask?"

Ratchet nearly laughed, "You go and nearly blow off Knock Out's head and when I ask if a lack of sleep has affected your anger, you ask why I'm asking!" Ratchet slammed his fist on his keypad behind him, "Have you gone mad?!"

"I apologise old friend. I have been concerned about the recent signals you provided your information with. I hope you forgive me."

Ratchet snorted, "You're apologising to the wrong Autobot. In fact, there's two you need to apologise to."

"And I will explain to everyone what is going on before I give Knock Out and Arcee a personal apology. Is that all right with you?" Optimus decided with a tint of anger still bubbling.

"Hmph, I suppose. You better mean those apologies to before I try to find out what's going on in your head!" Ratchet snarled. Soundwave, who was still beside Ratchet, held a picture on his screen. The medic smiled before turning to the Prime with a threatening look, "Don't say anything you might regret."

Optimus was confused until Soundwave turned and showed him the picture of the cortical psychic patch being used on Megatron when the Autobots were searching for the cure of the Cybonic Plague that had nearly killed Optimus. And had reawoken Megatron when he took over Bumblebee's mind.

Optimus sighed and nodded in defeat. He walked off to the hallway with his helm hung low. Maybe he did need a recharge.

* * *

Flying slowly was painful. Flying slowly while a slow Decepticon scientist drove to his location was even more painful. Starscream was a flyer who enjoyed the wind rushing through his wings. And he was so bored that he almost decided to take off and go back home. But if he had any chance of leading the Decepticons he better take every opportunity that was there.

They arrived at an abandoned Science Lab, probably the same one Shockwave worked in when the war was still heating up. The doors opened automatically as Shockwave drove in. Starscream followed him, the doors closing behind the Seeker. That's when Starscream figured out something very important to him and his hopes.

Shockwave wasn't alone.

To the Seeker, that was important.

After many turns and narrow pathways, they came upon a room with doors that didn't open automatically this time. Shockwave hummed and transformed, Starscream followed suite behind him. When Shockwave walked up to the door, they heard a crash inside. Starscream flinched and whined.

Shockwave definitely wasn't alone. That was all Starscream knew. But whoever it was, he hoped that they were friendlier than the average Decepticon.

"This is Shockwave. Requesting entry with a guest."

The doors opened as soon as Shockwave finished speaking. Whoever he had with him sure followed orders. And Starscream was smiling at that fact.

The room was full of tables with science equipment all over them. There were many berths in each of the corners. There were even many testing tubes, all touching the roof which required probably five Starscreams to reach the roof. Everyone was just thankful that there was only one.

Starscream jumped and hid behind Shockwave when a glass smashed onto the ground. The one-eyed Decepticon didn't panic when it occurred, but the Seeker could hear a sigh so it was obvious that it had happened more than once.

"I'm so sorry Shockwave." The figure walked in and froze at the sight of Starscream. The figure was almost a replica of Starscream. Except that they were mostly purple with the upper body being blue and their wings having a purple tint to them. Even the Cybertronian had heels just like Starscream.

Starscream was agape, "Slip-Slipstream?"

* * *

The Autobots and Decepticons of Autobot Outpost Omega One were standing in a group in the main room, the humans included. This could only mean that something has happened or is about to happen. And they didn't know whether it was going to be good or not. But when Optimus sent his message to his Autobots and Megatron to his former Decepticons, they both mentioned that they might have a battle on their hands.

Obviously it was bad news.

"I've called you here for a good reason," Optimus began, standing in front the massive group of Cybertronians before him and Megatron, "Soundwave has discovered something on our former home and has yet to reach Earth. But Megatron and I both fear that it will arrive soon."

The two moved apart from one another for the Cybertronians to have a look on the screen Ratchet had put up. It was an image of Cybertron with a black flashing pulse.

Windswept looked down when she first saw the image, "Scrap."

Megatron's audio receptors perked up at the femme's word, "Windswept. You know what this is. Care to explain?"

"Why do I have to? You were the one that started the whole creation process of it!" Windswept grumbled as Smokescreen stood beside her, a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You know it better than I do."

Windswept sighed, "Fine." She walked up the front, climbing up onto a crate in the process so the Cybertronians didn't have to look too far down just to see her, "From what I can gather, Ratchet, Rafael and Soundwave have been furiously searching for the source of this pulse on Cybertron. After Soundwave's scouting on our planet, he and Ratchet have come to the conclusion that it is Black Energon."

Smokescreen, Starlight and Aquastrike gasped at the familiar name. It had been a while since they heard of _that_ Energon. Dreadwing and Knock Out flinched at the name but refused to speak further, fearing that it would upset everyone else. Bumblebee, Bulkhead and Arcee were confused.

How did they miss this?

"**What is Black Energon?**" Bumblebee asked, unknowingly upsetting Windswept.

"You are seriously asking this question?!" Windswept snarled at him.

Bumblebee backed away so that he was behind Arcee, frightened by Windswept's tone of voice. Miko cocked her head to the side and bent down to Rafael's height.

"What did he ask?"

"What is Black Energon?" Rafael answered.

Miko nodded and stood back to her full height, confusion spreading over her face as well as Jack's and Rafael's. They watched Windswept pinch the bridge of her nose plating, obviously frustrated.

"I'd expect a question like this from the humans," Windswept muttered as she looked up, "Black Energon is what most Autobots called the 'Autobot Killer Disease'. Because it was so powerful and destructive. If Autobots didn't die from the Cybonic Plague, then they would've been killed by Black Energon. As the first Autobot to be tested on it, I struggled for survival. It took many Earth months to fight, recover and learn to do normal activities. I was like a sparkling basically."

"How was it created?" Bulkhead asked, squeezing Bumblebee's shoulder comfortingly when he panicked inside.

"Have you guys heard of Dead End?"

Cue the shivers from everyone, including the emotionless Cybertronians and excluding the humans. Knock Out shrugged and waved it off.

"Yes, that Decepticon. He was nearly killed because he was having too much fun with the Dark Energon. Then Shockwave came along and placed his spark in a body form cloned by Wheeljack."

"Wait, what?!" Wheeljack yelled in annoyance, "How could that one-eyed freak get my DNA when I've hardly been anywhere near him?!"

Everyone failed to notice Soundwave turn away from the group and back to the screen before him.

"Dead End found this black liquid substance. No one knows what it is but he went to Shockwave with it and it accidentally mixed with Dark Energon. Thats when they found the upper hand to our war. They programmed it so that Decepticons were immune to it, but when it was mixed with Autobot DNA..."

"It puts your life at risk," Smokescreen muttered darkly, finishing for Windswept who was struggling with her emotions.

"But I thought Cybertronians were all equal. We consume the same Energon. We may have different DNA but surely they couldn't be smart enough to make sure that all the Decepticons were safe and the Autobots at risk!" Arcee argued.

"Unfortunately, the Energon we Autobots consume is different from Decepticons. Normal Energon is the same colour but there is something in the Decepticon liquid that changes it to be more stable when someone consumes Dark Energon. It's the reason why the Decepticon's optic colour is red and the Autobots blue," Ratchet explained before looking at Dreadwing, "Although no one understands why Dreadwing and Skyquake has yellow as their optic colour. And the same went for Breakdown."

"I don't understand!" Smokescreen blurted as he looked at Windswept, "If Windswept is of both Autobot and Decepticon heritage, then surely she wouldn't have suffered as bad as she did when she was exposed!"

"Windswept is of both Autobot and Decepticon fractions. That I can clarify for you," Ratchet insisted as he scanned Windswept, the femme getting annoyed. The medic shrugged it off and continued, "But Windswept has been consuming the Autobot Energon longer than she consumed the Decepticon's, meaning that technically, she is an Autobot."

"Too much information," Starlight sighed as she held her helm.

"Still hungover Starlight?" Megatron asked, a teasing tone evident in his voice.

Starlight growled, "How would you know?"

"Oh believe me, I know more than you already know."

Starlight cringed and closed her optics tightly when the night before came flooding back to her. She remembered too much things that painfully told her that she was going to regret everything that happened. Her only wish was that nothing was going to come from it.

"Thankfully for us, we have the cure here ready to go," Ratchet pointed out, before actually pointing to Windswept, "However, it is locked by a code we do not yet possess. But one does."

"Only when the time comes when we need it, Ratch. That's when I'll give it up."

"Autobots, you are dismissed. When we have more information, we will give it to you," Optimus insisted as some of the Autobots parted ways.

"Dreadwing, you're on patrol," Megatron reminded Dreadwing as he nodded and headed towards the exit. Then Megatron looked at Knock Out, "Knock Out. I know you are with Arcee right now, but we need both medics on deck. We cannot afford a loss right now when this fatal disease is at large."

Knock Out nodded at the former Warlord, "I will not let you down Megatron." He began to walk away, but a servo on his shoulder stopped him. He didn't turn around, but Megatron still spoke to him.

"Make sure all rations of Energon are the Energon the Autobots consume." Knock Out was surprised by Megatron telling him this. He turned around and face the large mech, "If the Autobots are at risk, then we must risk our lives as well. If the war was still continuing, you know I wouldn't be asking of this and being selfish. But we all need to understand how much pain we put Optimus and his Autobots through."

Knock Out nodded and with that, Megatron walked away to the hallway. When he left, Arcee walked up to Knock Out, grabbing his servo when he wouldn't notice the femme.

"You okay?" She asked softly.

The red mech nodded and stroked Arcee's cheek, "I suppose."

"Knock Out." The medic jumped when he heard the booming voice of Optimus. The two turned to face the Prime.

"I apologise for snapping to you both earlier. It was very unlike me and I will admit that I have been distracted."

"We understand Optimus. I mean, its hard being a Prime and a normal Cybertronian at the same time." With that, Arcee pulled at Knock Out's servo and walked down the hallway.

Optimus sighed and shook his helm.

"You have no idea."

* * *

Well... I guess that it must be it for now. If I don't update next week, then I should update the following week. By then I should be on holiday!

BYES!


	7. Chapter 7

_Summary – When Knock Out and Arcee start to get close, everyone sees an unexpected change in themselves because of it. So its up to Windswept and her friends to see what's going on. Meanwhile, Starscream has got a couple of new Decepticons under his belt since the end of the war and he'll do whatever it takes for him to rise and become the new leader of Earth. _

Well yesterday (Good Friday) was the start of my holidays. And I'm very happy about this because it means that I get to update this story! So here I am sitting in bed with my computer on my lap and at the time of 8:38am (NZ Time), I bring you chapter 7 of Awakened Drama!

\- Windswept, Starlight and Aquastrike all belong to me.

\- I also own the plot line to this story.

\- Transformers Prime does not belong to me sadly. All characters and the show itself belongs to its amazing creators.

* * *

Dreadwing sighed in the cool relief of the wind. Night was slowly falling onto his patrol area so it wouldn't be long until Ratchet commed in and asked him to return. But for now, the former Decepticon enjoyed the silence, knowing that with the business of Black Energon would start to interrupt their peace.

"_**Dreadwing. Can you hear me?**_"

Dreadwing was quick to answer, "Yes Ratchet. What's going on?"

"_**There are some signals I need to look at. Could be Energon but Soundwave and I are not to sure. They should be five kliks north. Can you manage that?**_"

"Of course I can Ratchet. This shall be done with soon."

"_**I'll have back-up on stand-by just in case.**_"

Dreadwing snorted, "Like I need it."

In five minutes time, Dreadwing's sensors were starting to flash. The blue and yellow Decepticon wasted no time transforming, landing hard on the ground. If anyone was around, they'd think it was an earthquake. Dreadwing landed perfectly on his feet and slowly walked along the sandy ground.

Dreadwing froze when he heard scuffling. He silently pulled out his cannon, knowing that he might need it later. He could hear more scuffling further ahead so he walked slowly. He wasn't scared or anything like that. But he feared of what he might find ahead.

The twin of the former Skyquake widened his optics when he walked over the hill. Ahead was a rock structure; yes that was okay. But the worst thing was that there were Decepticon Miners mining the structure, pulling out little Energon crystals as they went and putting them in a container Dreadwing remembered carrying back to the Nemesis when they had enough.

"You there!" One of the miners yelled when he saw Dreadwing. The other miners stopped and turned around to face Dreadwing.

"The war has been lost, you fools. Give up now!" Dreadwing yelled as he held up his cannon in a threatening manner.

"We are not under your command any more, Dreadwing," A second miner announced, "We have a new leader."

A Groundbridge portal opened up behind the miners. The night sky was lit up with the colours of blues and greens as a figure walked out of it. The miners moved out of the way to reveal someone that Dreadwing knew.

The mech gasped as he recognised the figure.

"Dear Dreadwing. It has been quite some time."

Dreadwing had to pull himself back together when she spoke in her sly, perfect voice, "Slipstream. I haven't seen you since that night we began to take over Iacon."

"Yes, it was a very special night indeed. Unfortunately for you, I did not return those feelings and I still don't," Slipstream told him, grabbing something from her waist.

Dreadwing watched as she pulled out a black sword with a contrasting purple colour. The weapon had a black aura around it and the handle followed suit, a deep purple surrounding the handle and Slipstreams hand. The tip of it was sharp and Dreadwing made a note that the sword hadn't been in much use yet. But it'd possibly will now.

Slipstream smirked, "I see your admiring my new trophy. I'm sure you've heard of Black Energon."

Dreadwing froze.

"My new Black Energon sword – designed and created by Shockwave. It's easier to stab and kill innocent victims than using a shard of it. We need those shards for more of these weapons so that every Decepticon has one to use. It is our new plan to finally conquer the Autobots and finally win this war. The rebuild of Cybertron won't be building itself."

Dreadwing panicked and when he panicked, he needed someone there. So he did something he didn't think of doing beforehand.

"Ratchet, if you're there, I need backup. I'll explain more when I get back."

"_**If you're sure Dreadwing. I'm sending Windswept and Bumblebee in now.**_"

Dreadwing didn't think that having Windswept along would be the best of ideas. But since she was such an expert in Black Energon, they'd probably have her on standby everyday.

A Groundbridge opened up behind him and the two Autobots raced through and stood either side of Dreadwing, weapons ready.

"That's it?!" Slipstream laughed as the miners followed suit, "That's all the backup you have?!"

"At least I'm not pining after Megatron every time he spoke to me!" Windswept retorted, angering both Slipstream and Dreadwing.

"SO you used me to try and get closer to Megatron?" Dreadwing asked with anger evident in his voice.

"**Can we please leave your love affair out of this and just fight?**" Bumblebee asked with a bored tone.

"I agree!" Slipstream agreed as she held her sword in the air, "Decepticons! CHARGE!"

The battle was on; Windswept and Bumblebee charged at the Deception miners, their target to destroy already in the process. Dreadwing shot at Slipstream, eager for the blue and purple femme to be destroyed. Their swords clashed and Dreadwing gained the upper hand early when he twisted her sword out of her grip. Slipstream was angered instantly as she fired a missile at Dreadwing.

It didn't hit him, but it flung him back, knocking his sword out of his servos. Once the dust cleared, he looked up at the femme to see her in a fighting stance, motioning him to charge at her. Dreadwing growled before watching Windswept run over to the sword across the desert. She picked it up and went to stalk Slipstream, raising the sword when she was close enough.

Dreadwing watched the sword, gasping in horror when he realised that the sword that she picked up with the Black Energon sword.

"WINDSWEPT! NO!"

Windswept was confused when Dreadwing yelled at her. But when she felt dizzy, she knew why he did. She brought the sword down and gasped when she saw the colour of the sword.

Slipstream turned around and watched Windswept fall to her knees, suffocating and coughing from the disease. The twin of Starscream smirked and grabbed the sword, the tip now under Windswept's chin.

"Weak." Slipstream raised the sword, ready to strike the final blow. And she would have done so.

Had a Groundbridge not opened.

"**Thanks Ratch. We'll be back soon!**" Bumblebee whirred as Slipstream transformed and retreated with her sword.

Dreadwing growled, walking over to his sword where many dead Cybertronian drones lay, decapitated or with bullet wounds. Once he picked up his sword, he watched the figure of Slipstream disappear in the sky. He fought over where to follow her and resume their battle or return with Bumblebee and the now weakened Windswept back to base.

He made his choice. Putting his sword away, he walked over to Bumblebee, who was helping Windswept up. Dreadwing instead scooped her up and walked away from Bumblebee and into the Groundbridge.

Bumblebee was confused before he realised that Dreadwing was fighting something inside of him. Looking around, he quickly ran through the Groundbridge, the blue and green portal closing as soon as he disappeared.

* * *

"Windswept will be fine. There's nothing to worry about, Smokescreen!"

As soon as the trio got back to base, Dreadwing was met by a frantic Smokescreen. The rookie, when he saw Windswept in the state she was in, panicked instantly, knowing what had happened. Dreadwing took her to Ratchet instantly and with her in the safety of the medic, the rookie was relieved.

"Can I at least see her Ratchet?!" Smokescreen asked, "She is my girlfriend after all!"

Ratchet sighed. He understood what being in love at a young age was like. And something else he knew was how deeply in love Smokescreen was. The medic saw it in the rookie often and seeing Windswept hurt was killing him.

So Ratchet moved out of the way, not wanting to be bowled over by a speeding Smokescreen.

"Dreadwing?" The blue and yellow mech looked up at his former leader, a concerning look on his faceplates. Megatron stepped forward, placing a servo on the Seeker's shoulder, "What happened?"

Dreadwing sighed, "I was on patrol like normal. And then Ratchet comms and tells me there's some strange signals ahead. So I went to check them out and I found a group of Vehicons mining for Energon. I warned them that the battle was lost but then an old flame appeared-"

"Old flame?" Arcee questioned as everyone gathered to listen.

"The twin of Starscream," Dreadwing growled, "Slipstream."

"That ungrateful -" Aquastrike began with a snarl, but her mouth was covered by Bulkhead before she could say more.

"She appeared with a black sword. Then I came to the realisation that she had created it using Black Energon. So I called for back up and I knew that if Windswept was there, it was not going to end well. And I was right. As the battle got more personal, Windswept had grabbed the sword and went to attack Slipstream from behind. And she wouldn't listen to me when I told her no. And she should've."

"Cow." Everyone turned to Aquastrike when she muttered that word. When she saw everyone looking at her, she argued, "I was finishing my sentence from before?!"

Everyone turned away from her and faced the med-bay where Smokescreen and Windswept were slowly walking out from.

"Windswept? You need to be resting!" Ratchet yelled at her.

Smokescreen rolled his optics at the medic, "Can't keep a good femme down, Ratch. And everyone knows that you can't keep Windswept down."

Windswept had her head down as Ratchet spoke, "Maybe its best if Windswept does not go on missions any more."

"W-what?!" Smokescreen stuttered.

"Ratchet, you can't do this!" Megatron argued, before turning to Windswept, "What happened could not have been predicted. You are stronger than this. Don't doubt yourself,"

"Megsy's right!" Megatron growled when Miko yelled his nickname that she made for him. The teenager didn't hear him, "This Black Energon scrap will be over before its started!"

With a snarl at the teenager, Windswept turned slowly walked away from the group and down the hallway without looking back.

Starlight sighed and looked at Miko with an irritated matter, "You see what happens when you piss her off?!"

"Star, calm down." Starlight did as she was told, but she was still irritated and it was worse when Arcee had to butt in.

"Who's in charge here?" Smokescreen started, "Who's the one with the Matrix, huh? Obviously not you. So just leave everyone alone and worry about yourself. You'd be great at it."

Knock Out was defensive instantly, taking a step towards Smokescreen, "Hey, back off!"

"ENOUGH!" Everyone was quiet when Optimus spoke.

Miko turned to her friends, "Scrap, he's pissed!" Jack and Raf nodded in agreement.

An alarm went off as soon as everyone was silent. Ratchet was at the controls in an instant and was surprised when he found a signal flashing quickly.

"An Autobot identification beacon?" Ratchet gasped, pressing a few controls before speaking again, "Identify yourself."

"_**Ratchet? Is that you?**_"

Optimus' optics widened, "Commander?"

"Ultra Magnus?" Wheeljack and Bulkhead gasped.

"Ultra Magnus, my old friend. What brings you to this side of the galaxy?" Ratchet asked as he tried to identify his location.

"_**I have seen some strange signals around Cybertron and around this blue planet. Care to explain?**_"

Optimus moved forward and did what Ultra Magnus wanted. He explained about how the war had finished and how everything was fine until the strange signals had been coming up. He also added the fact that they had identified it as Black Energon and explained how they had a warrior in their ranks who had survived Black Energon and Optimus promised the Wrecker that Windswept would speak to him to explain more. What Optimus failed to mention was the recent battle Dreadwing, Bumblebee and Windswept had come from and how everything was changing as they spoke.

Ultra Magnus, once everything was explained, was at a loss for words, "I...uhhh, see."

"Optimus, I have identified his location," Ratchet told the Prime, "He is not far away from Earth."

"We will send landing-"

Megatron stopped the Prime before he could speak further, "Allow me Optimus." Optimus was surprised, but did as his brother wanted, "Ultra Magnus, my former enemy. We will send landing coordinates to our base. I wish to see you again soon."

"_**O-Of course Megatron. See you soon, everyone.**_" The connection fizzled away after that.

"Great, just great," Wheeljack grumbled.

"What's wrong Jackie?" Miko asked as she watched him curl his hands in fists.

Sensing that everyone was watching him, he uncurled his hands and spoke with gritted denta, "Nothing."

"Who's Ultra Magnus?" Raf asked, watching Wheeljack.

"He was the Commander of the Wreckers unit," Optimus began, "Before him, the Wreckers mostly preferred to work as individuals. But once Ultra Magnus took over, the unit began working as one and if one disagreed with the strategy, then they simply left."

"Hmph." Having enough, Wheeljack followed Windswept's path and stormed out.

Jack, noticing the tension through Cybertronian friends, pulled Raf and Miko away and onto the couch, "Something's not right."

"Duh! Jackie's just upset cause he won't be able to do things his way!" Miko explained.

"Miko, I think Jack means that some thing's happened back on Cybertron and it's like the fuse has been reignited again," Raf argued as Jack nodded in agreement.

"I'm not looking forward to meeting Ultra Magnus then," Miko said, her happiness deflating.

* * *

Starscream nodded with a smile that would've told people to run. After a few hours, Shockwave and with the help of dozens of Vehicons, brought in supply box after supply box and stored them within Starscream's base, the Harbinger. The last supply box had come through finally and Starscream was eager to close the Spacebridge.

"Wait."

Scrap that idea.

"What is it, Shockwave?" Starscream asked with actual concern. Yes, actual concern.

"I have forgotten something." Without any more words, Shockwave entered the Spacebridge.

"Something?" Starscream wondered.

"He means someone," Slipstream restated as she wandered in to the room, stepping over a box or two to reach her brother. When he looked at her with a confused look, she continued, "Shockwave has been keeping secrets from me for a while now but I know one of them. With him is the creator of Black Energon and I believe that I know who."

There was silence for a few moments until a figure was coming through the Spacebridge. Starscream hid behind Slipstream, not wanting to met the newcomer. But then it appeared.

The figure had yellow eyes and a green mask around its mouth, meaning that it didn't have a mouth. He was a mixture of yellow, green and orange on his front, his arms an orange and legs yellow. If the figure didn't have those colours, Starscream would have thought it was Wheeljack. However, the figure did had the same swords the former Wrecker, just green colour with yellow on the outlines.

He had cuffs on him and he was breathing heavily. By the time Shockwave appeared, Starscream and Slipstream were clutching each other in fear. The twins looked at each other and quickly backed away, awkwardly ignoring one another.

"I present to you, Starscream," Shockwave began, "Dead End, the creator of Black Energon."

* * *

The scrap is hitting the fan now! So I hope to update again soon, if not later. But please enjoy this chapter and please review! Gives me all the happiness in the world when someone does!

I hope everyone has a great Easter and gets lots of chocolate! Me and chocolate are very good friends, but no chocolate this Easter as I'm being separated from it for a little bit...

I am a very strange person.

BYES!


	8. Chapter 8

_Summary – When Knock Out and Arcee start to get close, everyone sees an unexpected change in themselves because of it. So its up to Windswept and her friends to see what's going on. Meanwhile, Starscream has got a couple of new Decepticons under his belt since the end of the war and he'll do whatever it takes for him to rise and become the new leader of Earth. _

I'm sorry. Thats it, that's all I have to say for making you wait. But I have two VERY good reasons for my absence.

1) I had been doing some reshuffling of some of my files and I decided to move them over to a new USB, thinking that it could handle the amount of images, complete and unfinished stories and one-shots as well as character bios and etc. Unfortunately, I deleted everything on my previous USB before I could test the new USB. Then BAM! Three years of hard work had gone down the drain and all for nothing! I was devastated by my mistake and so, the last few weeks, I've been copying and pasting the stories that I had uploaded to FF to my USB and trying to find and remember the images and everything I had wrote. I am now slowly up-to-date with everything and now all I have is the stories I uploaded and my characters.

Unfortunately, chapter 8 for this story was deleted in my mistake. It had been complete and was ready to be posted. Such a stupid person I am, huh?

2) My second reason was that school was being such a b**** to me and the homework just kept coming! I am up-to-date on school right now, but I have some massive tests coming which means you might have to wait a little longer for the next chapter, but I will NEVER abandon my stories. NEVER. You heard it right here!

So, I give you chapter 8!

\- Windswept, Starlight and Aquastrike all belong to me.

\- I also own the plot line to this story.

\- Transformers Prime does not belong to me sadly. All characters and the show itself belongs to its amazing creators.

* * *

Nearly a day after making contact with Ultra Magnus, six Autobots and two humans waited in a secluded location, away from their base, for Ultra Magnus to land. Now that he knew what was going on, everyone was either unsure and pretty sure how the Commander was going to take action towards the Black Energon. One of those who was pretty confident was Smokescreen.

"I bet he'll get all boss mode on us. Treat us like soldiers," The rookie expressed his opinion as he did a few punches.

"Ultra Magnus is nothing like that. He knows how to handle things the right way and, let me tell ya, he'll have our backs all the time!" Bulkhead insisted.

Windswept turned and faced Bulkhead, her hands on her hips, "Do you know Ultra Magnus? Smokescreen's right. Before he went to the Wreckers, he was with us. And he wasn't exactly family-friendly either. He was the opposite of Alpha Trion, who actually cared for us a lot more than Magnus would've."

"I'll tell you one person that wasn't family-friendly," Knock Out began as everyone focused their attention on him, "Shockwave. I swear, he's a robot." All the Cybertronians looked at him with looks that said 'We are robots.' "I-I mean, he was so emotionless, I believed he was one!"

"Every person is capable of change. Megatron was one hell of an emotionless guy until he threw in the towel," Jack explained, "Trust me, I'm sure Shockwave isn't as bad as you make him out to be."

"Jack, Shockwave's only emotionless because he concentrates on his work for more than looking out for others," Dreadwing told him, "He's kinda like Starscream."

"Last time I saw Shockwave, Cliffjumper and I destroyed his Spacebridge, leaving him in the rubble. I hope he's not alive otherwise we really are in deep scrap," Arcee hoped. Sensing Arcee's pain, Knock Out hugged the femme tightly, not wanting to let go.

As everything fell silent once more, they either stood there or sat down. Miko, who had been surprisingly quiet during the conversation, looked up from her seat on Bulkhead's shoulder and pointed at something sparkling near the sun, "I think I see it!"

Everyone looked up to where Miko was looking and sure enough, a sparkle in the sky was slowly forming into the shape of Ultra Magnus' ship. Everyone either smiled or began standing up, ready for the landing. Miko, who had stood up, looked as another sparkle began making its way towards the ship.

"Guys, I don't think that is ours!" Everyone was confused until they saw and orange flame appear from the side of the ship before big puffs of black smoke began filling the air as the ship began falling at an increasing rate.

"COME ON!" Windswept yelled as she transformed and sped off to where the ship was going to.

The others followed suit. Once Jack and Miko were safe with Arcee and Bulkhead, they followed the other four and began their chase.

* * *

"Wheeljack?"

Aquastrike sighed as she got no response again. Since the group of six Autobots left to go meet with Ultra Magnus, Wheeljack had been what humans call a 'stubborn mule' and took his anger out on the dummies in the training room. Aquastrike believed that Ultra Magnus had a different take on the war and he must taken his attitude to the Wreckers. Wheeljack had left as soon as Magnus started.

Aquastrike sighed, "Jackie?"

"What?" Wheeljack stopped stabbing the training dummy only to answer Aquastrike in a stern voice.

"I think you're overreacting about Ultra Magnus."

Aquastrike wished to take back what she had said when Wheeljack turned to her sharply, "Overreacting? YOU think I'M overreacting?!"

"I hate to say it. It is true."

Wheeljack growled and punched the dummy, "I am not overreacting!"

"Denial will only make things more true," Aquastrike teased lightly.

Wheeljack spun around, his leg coming up and smacking Aquastrike in the side, throwing her to the other side of the room. When he saw Aquastrike struggling to even sit up, Wheeljack realised what he said and quickly ran over to help the aqua blue femme.

"I was only..." Aquastrike stopped only to cough and wheeze as she saw the dent in her hip, "Teasing."

"I'm sorry sis," Wheeljack apologised as he helped her up, "I didn't realise that I was until now."

Aquastrike looked into Wheeljack's eyes and saw the disappointment in them reflecting back to her own. She gripped his shoulder tightly, "Hey, it's okay. You're my bro and you're allowed to have tantrums...sometimes."

"Thanks Aqua," Wheeljack smiled as the femme walked away from him. That was when the former Wrecker realised what she said, "Hey! I do NOT have tantrums!"

"Sure you don't!" Aquastrike yelled back sarcastically as she walked out of the room.

Wheeljack followed her, "I DON'T!"

* * *

"Anyone spotted it yet?" Windswept asked as the group travelled through Jasper slowly, hoping to not get caught out by any police scouting the area.

"Can't seem to see anything through this helmet!" Jack complained, "It's fogged up!"

"Would you like it if we pulled over and fixed it?" Arcee asked sweetly.

Jack could see through Arcee's tone of voice, "No, no. I'll shut up."

"Good," Arcee growled, "'Cause no one cares about your fraggin' helmet!"

Jack blinked, "...I do."

The two went silence as they slowly made a turn. As if right on cue, Ratchet commed in.

"_**Got a signal on the crash site. 20 kliks north.**_"

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Windswept grumbled, "That's gonna take a while!"

"We may as well get going then!" Smokescreen decided as he pressed on the gas, speeding so fast, he was almost out of sight.

Windswept sighed, "You idiot." With that, she took Smokescreen's lead and quickly followed him.

The others decided to continue at the speed limit until they were out of town, then they would go at full speed.

Meanwhile, Windswept managed to catch up with Smokescreen and you could tell by the tone of her voice that she wasn't happy with his antics, "Are you really trying to get us caught?"

"What?" Smokescreen said, startled by the accusation, "I'm just trying to find Magnus so we can get him back to base and get him rested!"

"You maybe thinking about his safety, but we also need to worry about our own!" Windswept growled.

A whirring sound was heard behind them and the two cursed under their breathe, "Scrap."

* * *

"_**Got an issue with some of the local safety crew. Gonna be a while before Smoke and I get to the crash site**_," Windswept commed to Autobot base, "_**Tell the others we'll find our way there soon.**_"

Ratchet face-palmed and shook his head, "Honestly?!"

"That kid is never going to learn," Wheeljack sighed.

"KIDS!" Ratchet yelled at him, "Windswept's just as bad as THAT rookie!"

"She is also my niece, Ratchet," Optimus said sternly to Ratchet, who instantly closed his mouth.

"Who is more of an adult than Smokescreen will ever be," Megatron piped in.

"Optimus, I cannot get a stable clarification on Ultra Magnus' condition," Ratchet warned to Optimus, looking everywhere on the screen, "Given Windswept's history with Magnus, I don't want her to see him in whatever state he is in."

"What history?" Aquastrike asked, "I never knew Windswept knew Ultra Magnus."

"Hmmm," Ratchet hummed, "That's another tale for a very-close another time."

* * *

"So, how do we get this mech outta this mess?" Knock Out asked as they looked at the crash site.

The ship looked like it would normally do when it had just landed, except for the huge piece of shrapnel missing from it. It was now sitting in front of the feet of the humans, who were looking at it with wonder. Smoke was rising near the back of it, but it wasn't threatening. From where the Autobots were standing, the cockpit window had been cracked so badly that they were unable to see Ultra Magnus' condition.

"Well..." Jack trailed off as he thought.

"Bulkhead, keep an eye on these two," Arcee told the former Wrecker while pointing down at the humans, "Dreadwing, inspect the damage and get base to call Fowler." Dreadwing nodded as he transformed and flew off to the crashed ship. Then Arcee looked at Knock Out, "I might need your medical assistance."

Knock Out smiled, "Gladly."

* * *

Starscream froze as he heard the Harbinger doors open to reveal a very triumphant Slipstream sauntering in. With a smile, she walked over to the Energon and grabbed a cube, chucking it up into the air and catching it continuously.

"You're a good mood," Starscream mentioned to his twin, who glared at him.

"Oh really?" Slipstream muttered sarcastically at him.

"What'd ya do?" Starscream asked.

"Shot down an oncoming Autobot ship." Starscream nodded for her to continue.

"Saw it coming from ages away so hovered around for a bit, thinking it could a back-up Decepticon ship. Then I saw the logos on it – the pathetic Autobot logo. Then I found some signals down below and they happened to also be Autobot. So I did what was necessary – stopped the Autobots from gaining more recruits."

"Good on you, 'Stream!" Starscream said sarcastically.

"What's the sarcasm for?" Slipstream asked, "And don't call me 'Stream!"

"Anyone can shoot down a ship."

Slipstream snarled and walked away from him, looking for Shockwave. She mimicked her brother as she tweaked her Energon cube, "'Anyone can shoot down a ship'. Hmph, one day I'll do something to show him up, that's for sure!"

As Slipstream spoke to herself, she failed to see an oncoming creature. When she finally looked up, she looked up to late as she smacked into the large creature, falling flat on her back as her Energon cube smashed onto the floor, the liquid going everywhere. When Slipstream found her bearings after a few moments, she looked up and widened her eyes. With fear, she stood up slowly before gunning it, screaming as she did so.

The creature just roared and stomped its way to Shockwave...

* * *

Arcee and Knock Out looked at the cracked glass before them with their faces deep in thought, wondering how how they were gonna exactly get into the ship with hurting Ultra Magnus further, and not injuring themselves.

"We could just use the actual entrance," Knock Out said plainly.

"How are we gonna do that?" Arcee asked, facing him and placing her hands on her hips, "How are we going to do that when the other entrance way is already damaged?"

"You know where it is?"

"I've been on this ship before, don't be so surprised," Arcee muttered as the two made their way around to the back.

They slowly crept around to see a massive hole on the side of it, fit for someone like Ratchet to get through. If Optimus was there, he'd would have to duck of course, but as Arcee walked into, it made her feel very small.

"Someone's managed to get in here," Arcee growled as she activated her blasters while Knock Out activated his rotor blade.

The two snuck around, eager to find Ultra Magnus and anyone else who could've been in the ship. They froze almost instantly when they heard someone speak.

"My handsome boyfriend, you are an idiot."

"I'm sorry, can you please repeat that?"

"You are an idiot."

"Not that part! The first part!"

"The 'my handsome boyfriend' bit?"

"Yeah, that one."

"Not a chance, idiot!"

When Arcee and Knock Out finally reached the cockpit, they didn't take long to figure out who was here. After all, the conversation the two were having gave away a lot of hints.

"'Swept?"

Windswept turned around and was instantly smiling, "Hey you two. Not the perfect place to be going on a date, huh?"

Arcee laughed, "The same can go for you two."

"Ahh, it's better than every other date," Windswept said cheekily.

The femme squeaked and covered her mouth when Smokescreen brushed her behind when he went past, "I think you might wanna take that back."

"You little-!"

"OKAY!" Arcee yelled at them, hoping to shut them up, "We get it. Now a need one of you two to wait outside the cockpit so we can get this mech outta here."

Windswept pushed Smokescreen, "Off you go. I'll deal with Magnus."

"Fine," Smokescreen sulked as he wandered off to find the entrance way they had created. The trio watched in amusement as Smokescreen ended up making a wrong turn. When he had realised, they saw him fly past as if they weren't supposed to know that he made a wrong turn.

"Honestly, that mech sometimes," Windswept muttered as she turned and looked at Magnus, "Hey buddy. It's Swept, you're annoying, but faithful favourite femme. We're gonna get you outta here, okay?"

Arcee and Knock Out watched with soft eyes as Windswept gave the mech a small kiss on his helm. Knock Out decided this was the time to get cheeky, "You have a boyfriend you know?"

"OH really?" Windswept looked at him with a sarcastic tone in her voice, "No way, Magnus is like a father to me. He was the first to find me taking refuge. I owe my life to him."

Arcee smacked Knock Out away as she moved up beside Windswept, "He's going to be okay, you know that aye?"

"Of course." Windswept failed to stop a tear or two from slipping from her eyes, "Right, let's get this mech home."

* * *

As soon as the group got Ultra Magnus back to base, the commander's care was now in the hands of the medics known as Ratchet and Knock Out. The two believed that Ultra Magnus was going to be fine, just a few bruises on his arms and a deep cut that went from Magnus' knee joint down to his foot. The problem was that Ultra Magnus hadn't woken up so anything could happen. But everyone had their hopes up.

Windswept watched Knock Out and Ratchet work, interest sparking in her eyes. Her goal had always been to become a medic if the war was to never end. But Ratchet, being very cautious about the future young Cybertronians like Windswept were dreaming about, had made her turn away from this, hoping that the femme had gotten the message that she was needed on the battlefield more than a med-bay.

Obviously she had listened.

"You okay there 'Swept?" Aquastrike asked as she and Starlight walked up to their friend.

Windswept turned around and smiled a weak smile to them, "I suppose. I just wish I did take those medical classes they had at Iacon. It would've been helpful so I could help Magnus."

"Knock Out was there, 'Swept," Starlight said reassuringly, "He knows what's going on."

"I know."

"Hey you three." The trio turned and faced Smokescreen, who instantly placed a prolonged kiss on Windswept's forehead, a kiss that really didn't give anything but reassurance.

"Hi Smokescreen," Aquastrike and Starlight greeted teasingly, annoying Windswept.

"What's up?" Windswept asked.

"Boss bots just sent 'Cee and 'Jackie on a signal they spotted on the coast, then they left down the hall. Obviously they're sorting stuff out for Magnus when he's on both feet again," Smokescreen explained.

"Yeah, this place seemed to be getting packed every...Hey? Where did Starlight go?" Windswept asked, stopping her sentence.

Aquastrike looked around and was confused. Where did that little Starlight go now?

"I'll go find her." Aquastrike took off instantly in search of the femme, leaving the two young love-birds standing there, wondering what the heck just happened.

* * *

"STAR!" Aquastrike yelled at her best friend when she caught up with her. When Starlight failed to look at her friend, Aquastrike grabbed her arm and spun her around to face her.

"What do you want?" Starlight asked angrily, forcing Aquastrike to back away from her.

"What the hell has gotten into you lately?" Aquastrike asked back, "One minute you're happy and cheerful, and the next you're a total-"

"Why do you have to know what's going on?" Starlight snapped.

"Cause you're my best friend and I'm worried-"

Aquastrike stopped when she realised that they were standing in front of the berthroom that belonged to Optimus Prime.

"_Megatron I cannot tell you who I have fallen in love with._"

"_Why not?_"

"_Because she is not available._"

"_Can't be 'Swept cause you're related, so * gasp * you are..._"

"_I'm in love with Arcee._"

BANG! Went the door as it swung open to reveal two femmes who had appeared to be listening to the conversation.

The two femmes looked at each other, "Scrap."

* * *

As you can tell, it looks like rule number one for the Cybertronians is NEVER listen in on people's conversation, especially if that person is Optimus Prime!

No guarantees on when the next chapter is gonna be, but trust me, I will not give up on this story and 'Lost and Found' will be continued. Just assuring you guys now.

SEE YA'S LATER!


	9. Chapter 9

_Summary – When Knock Out and Arcee start to get close, everyone sees an unexpected change in themselves because of it. So its up to Windswept and her friends to see what's going on. Meanwhile, Starscream has got a couple of new Decepticons under his belt since the end of the war and he'll do whatever it takes for him to rise and become the new leader of Earth. _

My chapters are getting longer whenever I seem to leave them for long periods of time. Anyway guys, it's the holidays here in NZ which means I have all this free time and nothing to do with it! Time to update this story! Let's get going!

SPOILER! I have a new OC in this story. Well, you may her know her from one of my previous stories, but if you don't know this one, then that's fine.

\- Windswept, Starlight, Aquastrike and the additional OC all belong to me.

\- I also own the plot line to this story.

\- Transformers Prime does not belong to me sadly. All characters and the show itself belongs to its amazing creators.

* * *

"You're quiet," Arcee commented as the two trudged their way through the forest, eager to find the signal they were looking for.

"Maybe because I want to be," Wheeljack snapped as he looked around, his blaster ready for any oncoming attacks.

"You don't have to be secretive around here or around me," Arcee told him, "You can tell me anything."

"It's that Windswept," Wheeljack spoke suddenly, causing Arcee to turn to him and stop in her tracks. "Windswept thinks she knows everything, believes everything's gonna come crashing down. She thinks because of her encounter with Black Energon means that she's special and doesn't have to do this or that! Windswept is NOT special, she doesn't know everything and she's only just a child!"

Arcee's eyes softened, "Windswept maybe a child, but she knows more than anyone around here, you know that."

"Someone needs to put her in her place, and if she's not careful, I will if I have to."

Arcee jumped in front of Wheeljack, kicking him down and pinning both his arms, straddling him, "You will not put Windswept in any place, all right? No one is going to, you got that?"

"You're gonna watch me anyway." Wheeljack hissed as Arcee's nails dug into his wrists.

"She'll be the one watching as I 'gently' smash you up!"

"Be careful you, don't want Knock Out to get jealous, huh?" Wheeljack teased.

Arcee snarled and slapped him across the face. When Wheeljack found his bearings again, Arcee had stood up and was now waiting for him to get up and get back to what they were supposed to be doing.

"Why do you care so much anyway?" Wheeljack growled as he began to get up. Arcee helped him by grabbing his hand.

"Because Windswept is Optimus' niece and I promised him once that I would protect her if something were to happen to him."

"Promised him, huh?" Wheeljack hummed, "Better be careful of what you say. Someone might just go and have a chat to Knock Out-"

Arcee snarled again, gripping Wheeljack's hand tightly, "You repeat our conversation to my love or anyone, then you will not live to see the end of the mess. Clear?"

"Fine," Wheeljack grumbled in defeat as Arcee pulled him up.

Once the Wrecker was standing up, Arcee looked around, "Now, where were we?"

The two continued their walk, their weapons out and ready to attack. Whenever they heard simple shuffling in the distance, the space between them would close and they would stand back-to-back, ready to strike at anything that was coming towards them. When they felt that there wasn't anything, they would return to normal – simply walking along with their blasters out.

However, when they heard an ear-piercing female scream nearby, that's when they froze and looked into the direction the scream came from.

"HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

Arcee looked at Wheeljack and they both nodded. They transformed and began driving to the location of the scream. The two were silent still when they heard more noise, this time it wasn't someone screaming, it was someone's sickly sweet voice speaking.

"Be quiet you disgusting human!" The voice, sounding like a certain female seeker, yelled at her prey, "I might let you live!"

When the two Autobots arrived, they shut off their engines and quietly lurked in the shadows as they watched Slipstream walk around with a human in her hand, holding the female human by the it's legs. The human almost squealed when she saw Wheeljack and Arcee, but the two were holding a finger up to their lips, telling the human to be quiet.

She listened.

She watched as the blue robot started climbing a tree and continued to watch her until the robot was now out of sight. Then she heard something whirring, causing the robot holding her to turn and face the other robot.

"You've had your fun Slipstream," Wheeljack growled, pointing his blaster at the seeker, "Now hand the girl over!"

"I don't have any reason to. Besides, she's fun to play with, listening to her squeals!"

"She is an innocent human!" Wheeljack argued.

"I suppose, but humans are squishy creatures." Slipstream demonstrated this by squeezing the human girl's legs, listening in glee when she heard the human scream in pain.

"Let. Her GO!" Slipstream felt weight on her shoulders and her eyes were covered, making her unable to see. She stepped backwards as the figure's weight on her was becoming to much to handle.

Wheeljack gasped when he saw Slipstream let go of the human, watching her fall. Time fell into slow motion as he ran towards her. When he was close enough, he snatched her away and transformed, driving away from the scene.

Arcee growled when Wheeljack drove away and jumped off Slipstream, pushing her forwards. The Decepticon fell onto her front before twisting onto her back, sneering at the blue femme standing up with her blasters pointing at her in a threatening matter.

"Well, well," Slipstream began, "It seems you have me right where you want me."

Arcee growled and held her position, not looking away for a moment. They both stayed in their same positions. Nothing was happening, and it looked like nothing was going to.

* * *

They stood in silence as they either looked at one another or around the room. Optimus was sitting on his berth, unable to look at anyone like he's disappointed them. Megatron stood near, his lips were thinned and he looked between Starlight, the walls making up Optimus' berthroom and the floor. Starlight had her hands on her hips, looking at Optimus sharply, her eyes not leaving the form of the Prime's. Finally, Aquastrike, with her arms crossed and her back against the wall which parted her doorwings, decided to speak.

"Is this true?" She asked.

Again, more silence.

"Don't talk all at once!" The aqua blue femme sarcastically said.

"Aqua!" Starlight growled, "Be nice!"

"I do," Optimus answered quietly, "I always have since the moment we were dying in the Arctic. I almost told her a couple to times – when I recovered from the Cybonic Plague, when I came back from my absence as Orion Pax and even after Nemesis Prime attacked us. Something always told me not to, and that was because I am a Prime and I should not have such feelings."

"Bullscrap!" Starlight yelled, "I'm sorry Optimus, but that is total bullscrap and you know it! You maybe a Prime yes, and those that have come before you may not have had someone to love and take care of. But you are here for a reason, and you've gotta take risks!"

Optimus almost lost his cool at the small femme, "Arcee is with Knock Out, who I believe is a far better choice than I."

Starlight sighed, "Before Knock Out and certainly before we had peace, she did have feelings for you." This caused Optimus to look up, "She told me that everything she said was true. Especially that part where she said that she would lay down her life for yours. But that's a given."

"If that was true, then why didn't she tell me?"

"Because she didn't want something bad to happen!" Starlight answered, "Like what happened to Tailgate and Cliffjumper."

"Who's Tailgate? Who's Cliffjumper?" Aquastrike asked curiously.

Starlight gave her a slap and continued, "The whole point is what if those feelings never truly faded away? What if deep down, she's struggling to come to terms with things? What if she's stuck between you and Knock Out and she chose the lesser-pressure option? We don't know these things, Prime so there's a chance."

Optimus felt empowered by her words, like he had something left to fight for. And what he had planned was not Prime-like, it was more Orion Pax-like.

"Optimus, you're more than just a Prime and deep down, Orion Pax is still there," Megatron added.

"I would've loved to have met him," Starlight mentioned.

"Autobots," Optimus began as he stood up, "Your kind words have made me strong and powerful. I will fight for Arcee's love." Then he looked at the trio seriously, "If any of you repeat this to anyone, especially Arcee, you will receive punishment."

"What's said in this room, stays in this room," Aquastrike piped in, causing Megatron and Starlight to nod and agree with her.

Optimus opened the door and slowly made his way down the hallway with Aquastrike, bouncing around like a puppy, after him. Starlight was next out and left the door open for Megatron, who did not follow everyone else and instead leaned up against it.

"I've never seen anyone give Optimus so much hope like you have done," Megatron commented.

"What can I say – it's a gift. Back at Iacon, I tried my best to give Windswept and the team hope and it always helped," Starlight shrugged.

Megatron nodded as she walked away, leaving him to lock the door. As he did so, memories of the night of the party flooded back into his mind. He struggled to get them to disappear as he walked away from the hallway and back to the main room.

* * *

"Where are we going?!" The human girl screamed as the car drove left and right to find a safe place for them.

"Finding a safe place for you," He answered, "I need to get back to Arcee, otherwise she's in trouble."

"Who's Arcee?"

"The one that saved your life."

"And you are...?"

"Wheeljack. What about you?"

"Catherine Esquivel. But you can call me Carly for short. Everyone does."

"Esquivel?" Wheeljack muttered.

"Yeah Esquivel," Carly confirmed, "I'm surprised you can say that so well."

"Yeah well, I've heard the name."

Carly just nodded slowly and continued, "We better be careful, especially with the black sword on the other femme's-"

"Black sword?" The car interrupted as he braked hard.

"Yeah, this black glowing sword on her waist. It looked deadly..."

"That's because it IS deadly," Wheeljack growled as he performed an 180 and began driving back into the direction that he came from.

* * *

The two females were still in the same position – Arcee standing with her blasters aimed at Slipstream while the latter was still on the ground, her hands lingering around her weapon being held at her waist. Nobody wanted to make the first move, because any move could be deadly.

"So, what are we supposed to do if none of us are gonna be the braver?" Slipstream questioned with a purr.

"Just shut up!" Arcee growled, "I need to focus on the way I plan to kill you."

Slipstream laughed out loud, "Good luck with that!"

Arcee growled again and her blasters whirred again, causing Slipstream to pause in her antics. Arcee moved away, "Get up! If I want to kill you, I have to do this right."

"A fair fight," the blue and purple Decepticon muttered as she stood up, "How nice."

The two stood opposite one another, their bodies in a fighting stance. Arcee's hands were folded into fists and brought close to her face, for protection and to fight. Slipstream twirled her sword around before holding it close to her, also for protection and to fight with.

Arcee charged first, her arm blades appearing out of each side of her arms. She leaped and twisted in the air, one half of her body aiming for Slipstream. However, Slipstream dodged the arm blade by blocking it with her sword. With a force behind it, the sword pushed the blue femme away. This caused Arcee to flip backwards and landed on her feet in a kneel. When she looked up, Slipstream was charging at her this time, raising her sword for what Arcee knew would be the final blow if the Autobot didn't move out of the way.

When Slipstream swung her sword, Arcee bent backwards to miss it. However, Slipstream paused her movements when the both heard the SNAP! of a twig snapping underneath someone's hands or weight. Slipstream looked in the direction of the SNAP! and bared her sharp teeth, similar to those of Megatrons'. Arcee, however, was trapped. She was on her knees with her back bent to avoid the deadly swipe of the sword. The tip of it was at her neck, the sound of a purr sending small vibrations through her neck and upper body.

Arcee slightly turned her head to see Wheeljack looking down at the human he rescued and the human, named Carly, herself looked down underneath her foot to see a large stick snapped into two. She looked up and saw Slipstream looking down at her. Carly made a small squeak and muttered, "Oh no."

Slipstream's lips turned into a smirk and looked at Arcee before looking back at the human, "Useless humans." She started, pulling the sword away from Arcee and stepping away from her, then she raised her sword, "Always doing the wrong thing." With intent deep in her eyes, she held the sword like a human would throw a javelin and threw it lowly, aiming for the human.

Seeing what Slipstream was planning, Wheeljack ran in front of Carly in hopes of catching it. The sword was too low for him to catch and it instead buried itself in Wheeljack's right thigh. Pain seized him and he collapsed onto his side, trying to pull out the sword from his thigh. The pain was too much for him and he just laid there, watching the sword with dark eyes.

Arcee was in shock before realising what was happening. Her partner had just been stabbed. Her friend. No, she couldn't lose another to the Decepticons! They had already taken Tailgate and Cliffjumper. She wasn't going to let them take Wheeljack too. They had done too much already.

She leaped up and sprinted over to the collapsing Wheeljack, kneeling when she finally reached him. Her mouth was agape as she, with both hands, pulled out the sword embedded in Wheeljack's upper leg. She swung the sword away, as she looked at Wheeljack's eyes. One of the first signs of being poisoned with Black Energon was that the eyes would turn black.

Arcee looked away. They were already a deep black.

"Arcee to base! HELP!" She screamed into her comlink.

Slipstream chuckled as she picked up the sword, "This is the start of what we shall accomplish. Fair warning."

Arcee refused to go after the femme as the Decepticon transformed behind her and flew away. Instead, all of her attention was purely focused on her friend lying beside her.

Carly ran up to Wheeljack's cheek, unaware of what was happening, "He'll be okay, right?!"

Arcee answered after she heard the sounds of a Groundbridge portal appearing behind her, "I don't know. I honestly don't."

* * *

The Autobots stood up as Ratchet and Knock Out walked into the room after giving Wheeljack the cure that Windswept provided the code for. They were eager to hear Wheeljack's condition and they needed to here it now.

Ratchet smiled a small smile, "Wheeljack's going to be fine."

A few sighs of relief were heard as some hugged and most smiled.

"Yes the Black Energon hit him quite hard and it was quickly spreading, but it had only spread down his right leg, excluding his foot, by the time we got him into the med-bay. A few more minutes and his whole leg would've been in frozen," Ratchet explained, "Wheeljack will need to spend a couple of days in the med-bay to make sure the poison has been mostly cleared. He'll make a full recovery by the end of next week I'd say."

"Long story short, he's gonna be fine," Knock Out summarised.

Windswept pulled away from Smokescreen and looked in the med-bay to see Wheeljack lying down on the medical berth. Near him was a human who had been rescued by Wheeljack himself communicating with him, "And the human?"

"She's fine," June Darby told her as she walked out of the med-bay and near the steps, "Her legs might be a little stiff and sore from what Slipstream did, but it'll pass."

"Thanks Mom," Jack thanked as he smiled at his mother.

"Any time Jack," June smiled before looking into the med-bay with a curious look, "But what I want to know is what she was doing out there in the first place, I mean, at this time of day."

"That's my sister, the adventurous one," Rafael commented.

"Thank you very much June for your help," Optimus thanked the nurse as she nodded and hopped into her car, pulling out and driving off. Then Optimus looked at the humans, "It's time you left for home."

"Awwwww," Miko pouted, "I wanna go see Wheeljack!"

"Maybe tomorrow Squirt," Windswept teased, sticking out her tongue at the human female.

"Don't call me Squirt," Miko growled as she hopped into Bulkhead who took off.

Windswept rolled her eyes and walked into the med-bay, smiling when the human and Wheeljack looked at her.

"Hey...uhh."

"It's Carly," Carly reminded the Autobot.

"Yeah thanks. Carly, you have to go home now. Go find Raf. He's in a yellow vehicle just out there," Windswept told the human, "Be sure to come here tomorrow so we can give you a more detailed explanation, yeah?"

"Sure," Carly beamed as she looked at Wheeljack, "Get better soon!"

"I will kiddo," Wheeljack smiled as the human disappeared into the main room with Windswept's help.

"Made yourself a new friend there, have ya?" Windswept asked with a goofy grin as she took a seat beside the recovering mech.

"She's cheeky, and she's a weird one, but she's a human either way," Wheeljack shrugged in answer. Then he became more serious and grabbed Windswept's hand, "At first 'Swept, I always thought you were a 'Miss Know-It-All', always knowing what to say, what to do and making sure everyone knows the pain of the Black Energon, the same one that you went through. But I doubted you. Now that this...has happened, I understand your pain. And I would appreciate it if you could help me with this leg." He gave his leg a tap to prove so.

"At first sight I thought you were smart-ass, talk-the-talk and no walk-the-walk type of guy," Windswept laughed, "So I guess we both doubted each other."

"Sure did," Wheeljack hummed.

"See ya later Wheeljack," Windswept said as she got up and walked away from the berth.

"Night Sprite!" Wheeljack teased.

"Watch it!" Windswept warned as she left the room.

Windswept bit her lip when she left the room. Great, another one to warn about the effects of Black Energon. And what was worse was that it was Wheeljack. It was gonna be hard telling him to back off on the battles from now on.

* * *

Whew! What drama! Anyway guys its 10:42pm here so I better get some sleep. Ahhh, school holidays. Gotta love 'em.

BYE GUYS!


	10. Chapter 10

_Summary – When Knock Out and Arcee start to get close, everyone sees an unexpected change in themselves because of it. So its up to Windswept and her friends to see what's going on. Meanwhile, Starscream has got a couple of new Decepticons under his belt since the end of the war and he'll do whatever it takes for him to rise and become the new leader of Earth. _

Sorry for the delay. I lost my mojo for this story – writer's block is what I mean. But yeah, just had no inspiration. But I'm here with a new chapter so that must mean something.

Another reason is school. Busy with school, tired from school, sick of school. Yep, that's about it.

In recent news I am now official on Inkitt and I plan on posting my stories on there soon. My user is the same as the one on here.

Right, I better get into it. I bring you Chapter 10 of Awakened Drama!

\- Windswept, Starlight, Aquastrike and Carly Esquivel all belong to me.

\- I also own the plot line to this story.

\- Transformers Prime does not belong to me sadly. All characters and the show itself belongs to its amazing creators.

* * *

After a week of recovering from his Black Energon stabbing, Wheeljack stared into the eyes of the Decepticon dummy with his own angry and determined ones. He was angry, angry that he had most likely hurt his chances of helping the Autobots to victory. But he had to protect that human. Windswept never mentioned what would happen if a human came across it.

But Wheeljack was also determined to become stronger so that his possible disability wouldn't stand in the way of helping the Autobots. The Wrecker had never felt so passionate to fight with the Autobots. It was one of the things he formally despised. He was always a loner, and refused to be part of the team at first. But after a while the war ended, and he wanted to spend some time with what he began to call friends. But then the war started up again and Wheeljack had never felt so eager to reclaim the peace they once had.

"If you keep starring at it long enough, your gonna lose focus."

Wheeljack rolled his eyes, not looking at the figure leaning up against the door frame, "My focus was lost the minute you walked in."

"Good to see you too."

Wheeljack sighed and turned around, "What'd ya want now, Aqua? Can't you see I'm busy?"

"Busy doing what?" Aquastrike began, "Starring at the dummy you wish it was a femme you want to sweep off their feet?"

"You know I'm not like that," Wheeljack grumbled.

"But you think about often," Aquastrike said knowingly, "I know you do. You're my brother and I can feel what you're thinking."

"I forgot to shut off that bond years ago."

Aquastrike's face turned into a sneer, "You know Jackie, I'm trying to help you and honestly, I've tried long enough. Now I've realised just how cold-sparked you are. Stop trying to push people away and let them in. Please! For my sakes." With that Aquastrike began to make her way out of the room.

Wheeljack growled and let out a warrior cry as his leg, the same one that was stabbed more than a week ago, swung around and kicked the side of the dummy, the force of it kicking the figure away to the other side of the room. Wheeljack grinned until he placed his leg back down and that's when the pain shot up his leg. He groaned and grabbed his leg.

Wheeljack looked at the entrance of the training room and sighed. He limped over to the wall and fell back against it. His head smacked against it as he slid down so that now he was sitting down, but still leaning up against.

He closed his eyes and thought. Maybe he should've let his little sister in. After all, she cared about her brother that much, didn't she?

* * *

There were five Autobots in the main room. And all of them were doing mostly different things. Ratchet, of course, was keeping an eye on the screens before him, hoping that he would not detect a signal. Because that meant he would interrupt the group of Autobots in the room.

Bumblebee and Starlight were lobbing a make-shift ball around, the same one that Bumblebee and Bulkhead were using to play basketball once, and one of them would instantly grin or stick their tongue out when the other missed it. Starlight sometimes would do a twirl and sometimes Bumblebee would do a pose when one of them scored in the hoops opposite each other.

Sitting on the crates was Windswept, who was drinking her daily dose of Energon. However, she seemed anxious as she drunk her Energon quite quickly in huge sips. Dreadwing, who was sitting near her, watched her with worried eyes, knowing that something was off.

"Hey, are you all right?" Windswept jumped slightly, not expecting to hear from Dreadwing. In fact, she was so surprised, she had spat out some of the Energon.

She coughed slightly and looked at Dreadwing, "Sorry, I forgot you were there. I've been thinking over some stuff. Especially about Wheeljack-"

"Since we're on the topic of that Wrecker..." Dreadwing trailed off when Starlight and Bumblebee walked up.

"...How is the Wrecker?" Starlight asked, knowing what Dreadwing was going to say.

Windswept hummed, "Dunno. He's been quite distant since the whole incident."

"**I thought you would've been sharing notes. You know, 'how to keep away from Black Energon'**," Bumblebee cheekily said.

Windswept narrowed her eyes, "This is no laughing matter, Bee and you know it." When Bumblebee looked down, Windswept eyes sparkled, "Usually I would be sharing my notes, but like I said, he has been distant."

"I noticed that he has been hanging around the new human lately," Dreadwing noted, "What's her name?"

"Carly," Starlight reminded him.

An alarm sound went off. The four instantly looked over to Ratchet, who looked like he was panicking as he played around with the controls.

"No, no, no, no, no!" Ratchet muttered, panic definitely evident in his tone.

"Ratchet...?"

The medic looked at the group, "Starscream has figured out our co-ordinates to our base and is right now ready to attack."

"Are you serious?!" Windswept screamed as Bumblebee looked around while the others looked pretty worried.

"Windswept, gather the others inside base." With that, Windswept sped off down the hall. Ratchet then looked at Bumblebee, Starlight and Dreadwing, "You three, go up there and create a distraction!"

The trio all nodded and quickly ran to the elevator deep into the base. They all stepped into the platform before Bumblebee typed some commands into a key pad inside the elevator. The doors closed before the elevator flew up until the trio could see the outside of the base. They all stepped off the platform and began looking around.

"Anyone see anything?" Starlight asked.

"**Nothing here!**" Bumblebee answered.

"Uh oh," Dreadwing muttered, forcing Starlight and Bumblebee to come to his side in an instance.

In the distance, two shapes were starting to form as they reached ever so closer. The shapes were starting to form into to familiar jets. The jets were too familiar for Dreadwing, Bumblebee and Starlight. And panic started to beat inside their sparks.

Starscream and Slipstream were starting to arrive with their army of Decepticons behind them.

"Scrap, scrap, scrap!" Starlight began screaming and started breathing heavily.

"**Star, calm down. Its gonna be okay!**" Bumblebee told her. It worked sort of, but she kept hyperventilating. Bumblebee looked up at Dreadwing, "**Can you keep an eye while I take her back?**"

Dreadwing nodded and watched as the duo disappeared into the elevator. He looked up to see that the figures were now closer to the base. He took a few steps back, reality finally sinking in.

The silver and red fighter jet known as Starscream came to a slow halt, transforming into his Decepticon form. He looked at Dreadwing in surprise and in fear, taking multiple steps back quickly, "You...How is this possible?!"

"I do not understand," Dreadwing said innocently, having no idea what the Seeker was on about.

"You were murdered in the canyon. And then I brought you back to life with the use of Dark Energon for my army against Megatron," Starscream explained, his scared expression still etched on his face, "And now here you are, looking as if you had never gone through such death."

Dreadwing began fitting the pieces together almost instantly. His face turned to pure anger and he activated his blaster cannon, aiming straight for Starscream's spark, "It was you who cause me so much pain! You murdered my twin?!"

"TWIN?!" Starscream squeaked, raising his arms, "But th-that means your not Sk-Skyquake!"

Dreadwing snarled, hearing the whirr of his blaster cannon. He was ready to destroy this traitor for what he had done to his twin. For causing him all that pain.

Blasters shots rained from the sky, each one aiming at the armed Dreadwing. The poor Decepticon-turned-Autobot had to dance around to not be hit by the shots. He knew better than engaging the enemy alone. He made a choice and quickly ran to the elevator, but it refused to open, much to Dreadwing's panic. The yellow-eyed Decepticon quickly transformed and flew away, having no other option.

When Dreadwing did disappear, so did the rain. A jet pulled up beside Starscream, deciding against transforming. Starscream rolled his optics. Of course his sister didn't want to transform, not when a huge battle was about to begin.

"No one hurts my brother except me," the jet muttered.

"When your ready Slipstream," Starscream smirked.

Slipstream flew away, joining her armada, who waited patiently for her signal. She shot a missile up in the sky, the sound screeching as it faded away. That was the signal.

Starscream watched as his sister and handful of her armada flew away. He chuckled as he made his way to the elevator. He was surprised when the doors slide open and blaster shots sent him flying away from it.

Dreadwing, having decided to go back now that Slipstream and half of the drones had gone elsewhere, arrived back when Starscream was blown away from the elevator. The former Decepticon transformed and looked into the elevator, widening his optics when he saw Ultra Magnus standing there with his blaster cannons activated as well a small group of Autobots with him. The Autobots ran out to defend while Dreadwing walked up to Ultra Magnus.

"I had no idea you were fit to fight."

"I'm not," Ultra Magnus told him, "But they had no choice to argue with me."

Dreadwing nodded slowly and charged to the trio of Autobots ahead of him and the light blue and red Autobot Wrecker. They stood and began to fight, hoping to win the battle.

* * *

"I can't believe this is happening..." Miko trailed off as she, Jack, Raf and the recent addition Carly watched the Autobots and former Decepticons preparing as if to roll out.

"If they were to be kicked out outta here," Carly began, pulling her eyes off of the Cybertronians to look at her new friends, "Where would they go?"

Jack answered after a pause, "I don't know. I didn't think they would have a back-plan."

"But surely they would've expected this coming...right?"

Raf smiled a reassuring smile and squeezed her arm, "Everything's gonna be okay, Carly. They know what they're doing. They'll let us know when they feel when they're prepared, okay?"

Carly brought an uneasy smile to her face when she looked down at Raf, but it disappeared the second Raf turned away.

A wave of Autobots began rushing into the main room, slowly being followed by Optimus and Megatron. It was if the leaders of the Autobots and former Decepticons had an announcement to make.

"Autobots-"

"Stop right there Prime!" Everyone turned to face the entrance of the Autobot base, where Slipstream stood with some of her armada behind her. The corners of her mouth formed into a smirk, her hands hovering over her black sword.

Instinctively, Arcee, Bumblebee and Bulkhead rushed to the humans, each one grabbing their counterpart. Momentarily, they forgot that they had a new member in Carly, but when they went to grab her, she had disappeared...until they found her on Wheeljack's shoulder, much to their relief.

Slipstream eyed Windswept in the crowd, her smirk coming to full light before looking to her sword, now in her grasp, "I wonder would happen if I stabbed you, dear Windswept. Given that you have already been affected once, I'd say you wouldn't last long."

Windswept released a low growl, her hands curling up into fists before looking at Optimus, "Get these guys and the humans to the Nemesis. Now." Her eyes were beginning to turn into a faint black as she locked optics with Slipstream, "It's time to find out."

Ratchet typed some commands into the Groundbridge before it swirled to life beside them. The Autobots with their human counterparts raced through quickly. Optimus and Ratchet locked optics for a second before the medic nodded, following them.

"I will not let Windswept fight this on her own," Megatron growled.

Windswept blocked a kick from one of Slipstream's drones. She jumped and landed on to the mech's chassis, her heels digging in while the drone began to lose its balance. The femme ripped off its helm, chucking it away. Windswept jumped down as the drone held its arms out to to try and grab her without the use of his helm. She took him by surprise, ripping open his spark chamber and, with the use of both of her hands, ripped the drones spark out with ease. He fell forward, the femme moving out of the way just in time.

Megatron growled again when Windswept bent forwards, coughing from the prolonged exposure of the Black Energon in Slipstream's grasp. The large silver and grey mech walked to the Groundbridge controls, commanding it turn off much to Optimus' surprise.

His former foe looked at the also large red and blue mech, "I'm sending you a comm. to Soundwave. He and Knock Out are already on the warship with the Autobots and their humans. Dreadwing, Smokescreen, Ultra Magnus, Aquastrike and Starlight are on the roof defending the base with all their weapons. Tell them we cannot afford a loss in our ranks and they must go through to the Groundbridge to the Nemesis."

Optimus nodded slowly, turning and racing away from the group. When Optimus was out of sight, Megatron looked at Slipstream, who was ready to strike at the distracted Windswept. He activated his blaster and fired quickly, hitting Slipstream. She flew away from Windswept, the latter looking behind her in confusion.

Slipstream hit the rock face back first, falling heavily front first. She looked up, her eyes blurry but she could still make out the image of Megatron easily. She grinned slyly, drawing her sword out. This was going to fun.

* * *

"STAR!"

Aquastrike watched as the femme bounced off the roof of the base and near the entry of the base's elevator. She saw that the femme was falling into unconsciousness and she wanted to rush over to her. But the blaster shots coming from Starscream's armada were becoming to much for Smokescreen, Ultra Magnus and Dreadwing to handle by themselves.

The elevator doors slid open and Optimus nearly tripped over Starlight in surprise of seeing her there. He looked at her for a moment before bending down and checking her over. One hand slid underneath her while the other went to his audio.

"Soundwave, open the Groundbridge now!" He instructed, hoping the silent mech will do what the Prime wanted.

And he did. The portal opened up near the edge of the roof on Optimus' left. The four fighters ahead of him stole a glance or two at it in confusion. That's when Optimus made his presence clear.

"Autobots, retreat!" He commanded.

Dreadwing, closest to the Groundbridge, was the first to follow orders. He ran through, still shooting until his figure faded in the Groundbridge. Ultra Magnus was next followed by Smokescreen. Aquastrike, still shooting, stopped halfway through when she noticed Optimus running with a now unconscious Starlight.

"Optimus, what about the base?!" The aqua blue femme asked with panic.

"Now is not the time to discuss it!" Optimus answered quickly, running into the bridge.

Aquastrike sighed and turned her back to the Groundbridge for a moment, still shooting. The drones fell back and a silver and red jet flew in front of Aquastrike, landing and transforming to reveal Starscream. He stood in a fighting stance, a missile at the ready.

"I'm not scared of you," Aquastrike told him bravely, showing no signs of fear.

Starscream chuckled, bringing his arm with missile up slightly higher, "Oh really?"

He fired the missile, catching the aqua blue femme in surprise. She looked behind at the Groundbridge behind her before turning back to the missile. With no other choice, she back-flipped into the Groundbridge, her figure disappearing as well as the Groundbridge before the missile could get them.

Starscream growled, bring his hand to his audio, "And what was the whole point of attacking the Autobot base?"

"Simple," the voice answered, "More resources and to put the Autobots in a more compromising place. They are homeless now and more vulnerable."

* * *

The group of Autobots and Decepticons rallied at the main room on the Nemesis. It had been a long time since it was last used. But during its retirement, it had been staying at Autobot base with the quarters of the former Decepticons being used. The Autobots looked around in curiosity, wondering what the former Decepticons, especially Megatron, had up their sleeves.

"So this is the mother base of operations?" Carly asked from Wheeljack's shoulder.

"Not exactly," Miko answered, "It's the Decepticon's base of operations. You know, before the war ended."

"Ahhh, of course," Carly hummed before looking at Wheeljack, "Where's your ship? I hear that you had one too?"

"Mines up top. I can show you later if you'd like."

Carly grinned and cheered, "Sweet!"

The doors behind them slide open. They all turned to see Megatron walking calmly after his battle with Slipstream, a few bruises decorated him here and there. But he was in one piece. Behind him was the now rich black-eyed Windswept, who looked like she would collapse any minute. When the doors closed, that was when she fell to her knees, weakened from the Black Energon. Of course, someone was there to her side in an instant.

And that someone was of course Smokescreen. He held her tightly and when she felt more confident to stand, that was when he helped her up slowly. The mech's arm still wrapped around her shoulders, but she looked more healthier now. Even that black in her eyes had gone.

"How did that go?" Arcee asked, Knock Out massaging her shoulders behind her.

"Painful, but I had some unlikely back-up," Windswept answered as she looked up to Megatron, "Thank you for the help."

Megatron shrugged, "I was not letting Slipstream stab you. After all, the more time I stay here, the more I regret my actions. My stabbing of you included."

"Hey 'Swept? There's just one thing I don't get. Slipstream mentioned that you wouldn't last long because you've been stabbed before. What did she mean by that?" Wheeljack asked, pointing at her, "Is there something your not telling us?"

Windswept bit her lip and looked down. Of course she forgot the most important bit. Smokescreen looked her, whispering softly, "Tell them."

"Yes Windswept, tell us," Wheeljack urged angrily.

Windswept sighed. When was she not going to have to explain everything? "Even after your stabbing of the Energon, the black substance does not go away and during which, if you are near Black Energon, you're injury from the stabbing will weaken. If you are stabbed a second time, given that you're body had to fight it the first time, the second time your spark won't fight it."

Everyone stayed silent, taking it all in slowly. Wheeljack narrowed his eyes, "Meaning?"

"If you are stabbed a second time, you'll die without a fight."

* * *

This was it. They had taken over Autobot base finally. Of course they had things to change some things. For starters, that wretched Autobot logo on the floor near the Groundbridge. And get rid of the mess of dead Decepticon drones near the entry way, but other than that, nothing really to change.

"Starscream. Slipstream and I have found something in the hallway." The silver and red Decepticon looked up to see Shockwave and Slipstream carrying a black and gold decorated pod. They placed it in front of him.

"Hmmmm..." Starscream walked up and circled it, starring at the face he was unable to make out due to the dust. He pressed his hand on.

The trio jumped back in panic when they heard the sounds of it opening. Starscream's jaw hung low. He knew that pink and black and gold femme from anywhere. After all, he was one of the reasons why he left the Decepticons in the first place.

"Airachnid," Starscream rasped.

"Starscream," The spider purred, "It has been some time."

* * *

Oh dear Primus what have I done? Well, hopefully the next chapter will come up earlier than this. But until then, its busy busy busy!

BYES!


	11. Chapter 11

_Summary – When Knock Out and Arcee start to get close, everyone sees an unexpected change in themselves because of it. So its up to Windswept and her friends to see what's going on. Meanwhile, Starscream has got a couple of new Decepticons under his belt since the end of the war and he'll do whatever it takes for him to rise and become the new leader of Earth. _

So I last updated last year and what's this? End of March?! Wow. Time really flies sometimes doesn't it. I feel really bad for not updating, believe me. I hope this chapter sort of makes up for it. Even though it's kind smallish.

\- Windswept, Starlight, Aquastrike and Carly Esquivel all belong to me.

\- I also own the plot line to this story.

\- Transformers Prime does not belong to me sadly. All characters and the show itself belongs to its amazing creators.

* * *

"You didn't tell me we could die from the disease."

"Didn't have to," Windswept noted, refusing to look away from the blue sky ahead, "I thought I made myself clear."

"Well, you didn't. In fact, I never heard you say that."

Windswept huffed and turned around sharply, a tint of red now noticeable in her eyes, "What's the whole point of you annoying me Wheeljack?"

"I need to know more. What else is there that you can tell us?" Wheeljack pressed.

"There's nothing more to tell," Windswept answered simply, "I've told you everything I know. Isn't that enough for you?"

Wheeljack growled lightly, looking around and shaking his head. Why did he have to go outside to see Windswept about the disease when she has no idea what else is at stake? "Windswept you know this isn't funny right. Surely you must know something more. And I know you do. I can see it 'Swept, when your angry and your hiding the truth."

"I'm hiding it cause I don't know it!" Windswept screamed at him, "The only person I know that can tell you more is Smokescreen! He was the one lying beside my bedside as I died from the inside out. He never left me during that time and because of it, he's a different person emotionally. Go find him." The femme began to wander off, bumping Wheeljack as she went past him purposely, "I'm sure he'll give you the answers you're looking for."

Wheeljack turned around and watched Windswept disappear back in to the warship. Well if what Windswept said was true, then he knew what he had to do next. Question was, where would Smokescreen be?

* * *

Airachnid looked around curiously, taking slow steps. This was the former Autobot base. Now it was the Decepticons? What had she missed?

"I see a lot of time has passed and many things have changed," She noted. The spider looked around to face Starscream, "But I wasn't expecting you to be the one opening my pod."

"Megatron gave up the war and he, along with Knock Out, Soundwave and Dreadwing, took refugee here before I, now leader of the Decepticons, swooped in and scared them out!" Starscream explained, a hint of a proud tone in his voice.

Airachnid chuckled amusingly, "I am quite surprised you have grown up to taken on the role. Technically speaking, you were the one to abandon the cause so many times I hear."

"Can I add here that he almost destroyed Bumblebee's T-Cog and managed to acquire a small dose of Red Energon?" Slipstream butted in, a teasing smile sketched onto her faceplates.

"Yes, well. Some things haven't gone to plan."

"Hmm, yes. I suppose not." Starscream watched her hands curl up into fists as she sauntered around Starscream, "My, my. Independence has changed you." She brought one of her fists up and delicately grazed her knuckles upon his cheek.

"Stasis has changed you," Starscream purred back.

"YUCK!" The two looked at Slipstream, who brought her arms across her face, turning away also, "Go back to being mean, go back to being mean to each other!"

"Starscream." The silver and red mech looked at the one-eyed creature, known as Shockwave. "What do we do about-"

"Leave him be!" Starscream interrupted him as he wandered down the hallway. He turned back, eyeing Airachnid, "Would you like a tour?"

Airachnid's plain smile turned into a small smirk, "Love to." She quickly followed him.

Slipstream and Shockwave watched as the faded into the dark hallway. Slipstream just folded her arms and fell into a lean, "Ew."

* * *

"Knock Out! Can I go now!"

"Starlight, how many times do I have to tell you? You need more tests done!" Knock Out yelled at her.

"Why do I even need more tests. I'm perfectly fine, right?" When silence answered her, she continued, "See? What are you not telling me then?"

"Star, just let him do his job. He's a medic after all and if there's something wrong, then just let them sort it out."

Starlight huffed and looked into Megatron's eyes, "And of course you would know."

"Actually, Megatron. It's a good thing you're here too," Knock Out told him as he brought over some scans, "You two were at the party the other night, right?"

"Don't remind me," Starlight grumbled as she turned away.

"Go on," Megatron urged.

"Do you guys remember what you did after you got drunk?" Knock Out pressed.

"Not much. The only thing I remember was waking up in his berth," Starlight grumbled further as she pointed to Megatron, who moved to now standing beside the pink and white femme, who was still stuck in her berth.

"That explains it then."

"Explains what?" Starlight and Megatron asked.

"Seriously? I would've thought that you two would've figured it out by now." Knock Out shook his head in disbelief before looking at the duo, who were giving him a look of urgency, "Still haven't figured it out? Wow, aren't you two-"

"KNOCK OUT!"

"All right, all right!" Knock Out yelled back, backing away slowly, "Starlight's carrying and Megatron's the father."

Starlight and Megatron looked at each other, their mouths agape. Starlight was pregnant? Megatron was the father?

This changes the game.

* * *

Wheeljack looked down the corridor, a sigh escaping his lip plates. Fitting in to the new quarters wasn't easy. Each corridor had about ten rooms, five on each side. There would be more doors at the end of each one too. And those rooms led to more corridors elsewhere. And as much as he wanted to walk through those doors and see what else this warship was hiding, Wheeljack wasn't very interested in getting lost when he was more interested in talking to one of his comrades.

Although finding his comrades room wasn't going to be easy since they had only just moved into these rooms and hardly anyone had any idea which room belonged to who.

So Wheeljack took a stab in the dark and began walking down the room. He looked at each door, attempting to figure out each one mentally.

_'Starlight_,_ Bulkhead_,_ Bumblebee_.' The names continued to fall at each door.

Maybe remembering things like this were easier than Wheeljack had originally thought.

He managed to get to the last room on the left side, where he found out to be slightly ajar. He looked through the gap and found the mech he was looking for sitting on his berth, fiddling around with an Energon cube.

Instead of barging in, which was what the Wrecker probably would have done, Wheeljack knocked on the door softly.

Smokescreen looked at the door at the sound of the knocking and found Wheeljack pepping through. The rookie signalled him to come in, and that was what the Wrecker did. Interestingly enough, once the guest was in the room, he closed it.

"We need to talk."

Smokescreen was surprised, "About what? We have nothing to-"

"Black Energon."

Smokescreen heaved a deep sigh at the mention of the liquid. He showed Wheeljack at seat near the back of the room, which the latter took as a sign to grab it.

As he grabbed it, he couldn't help but notice the files neatly stacked at the corner of the desk alongside the wall. Along the back of the desk were frames of Smokescreen and Windswept smiling, laughing, do whatever.

"You sharing a room with 'Swept." It wasn't a question, and Smokescreen knew that.

"I recharge better when I know she's safe and with me."

Of course. Why else would there be files stacked neatly? Smokescreen was very messy with his files and anything else, Wheeljack had been told. And Windswept was the total opposite of that.

Huh, guess that's what people meant when they said that opposites attract.

Wheeljack brought the chair opposite Smokescreen and sat down on it, "Okay hotshot. Whaddaya know about the Black Energon, huh?"

"First off, don't ever call me 'hotshot' again." Wheeljack raised his arms in defence jokingly before settling again, "Second, I think **you** know a lot more about it now, don't you?"

"But aren't there things Windswept doesn't know?" Wheeljack fired back.

Again, the rookie sighed, placed his cube on the night-stand beside the bed and looked Wheeljack carefully in the optic, "She sent you down to talk to me, huh? Well...where to start? Well, at that point the Decepticons had gone quiet so she went out on one of her spy missions. She wasn't really allowed to go, mainly because Alpha Trion didn't know about them, but she insisted on seeing what was happening with the Decepticons. Hours later, she was rushed into the med-bay at Iacon. She wasn't in the best shape; the energy was taken out of her and she looked terribly ill. She still moved around now and then, but she was so out of it. I visited her everyday and I watched her get worse and worse.

"It wasn't until a week later that I went to visit her like normal and I discovered that she wasn't awake. She had gone into some kind of shut down, both body and mind. They told me that the disease was spreading quickly. They told me she wouldn't last to the next week, maybe less. They told me not to pray for any sort of miracle and that there was no point going to see her. But I did what I could and that was to be there for her. It was during those slow days that I realised I had feelings for her and that I was scared I was going to lose her.

"Then a miracle did happen. One day in the third week, Ratchet bounded into the room, announced that he had a cure, shoved me out and got to work. Twelve hours later, they told me to come in. I was scared that she had passed processing the cure and they couldn't save her. But when I walked into that room, I found her sitting up and smiling as if nothing had happened to her. She was still weak, but she was the same cheeky, sarcastic Windswept she was before all this happened. The recovery, however, was a long process. She was basically a sparkling just learning how to walk. Because of her mind and body shutting down and not moving for a few weeks, she had gotten stiff.

"We helped her recover and after a month or so, she was back to normal. Well, normal for her was fighting Decepticons, in the med-bay for an injury and working with Alpha Trion."

Wheeljack nodded slowly, processing everything in. He watched as Smokescreen looked down and fidget with his hands.

"But you know what I remember most? It was the fact that Windswept was able to find the disease during its development stage. Ratchet may have found the cure, but it was her that discovered the disease first. They practically saved a lot of lives."

Wheeljack became speechless. He didn't know what to say.

* * *

"...So..."

"So..." Megatron nodded, looking at the small femme opposite him.

The two were in Megatron's berthroom, sitting on opposite sides of the room. They were still processing everything. But what was there to process? Starlight was pregnant. Megatron was the father.

There was nothing to process. Except for one thing.

"We are keeping it, right?"

Megatron turned to her again quickly. Keeping it? He hadn't even thought about whether they were keeping it or not. Keeping it would mean that they would have to look after themselves, the team AND a newborn. While getting rid of it could save it from the lives they led right now. The warlord rubbed his forehead.

"You think we should?"

"Well, maybe we should. After all, if I get an abortion, I will regret it my whole life," Starlight whispered.

"But wouldn't it be safer if we do. They won't have to-"

"You want ME to abort it?!" Starlight screamed as she stood up, "If I do this, then one spark will be stopped, two eyes that will never see, two hands that will never see, two legs that will never run..."

"Don't even rule this out!" Megatron growled, standing up to over-power her. Instead he walked away from her and to the door of his room, "You know I'm not the type to EVER have a sparkling, and I never will be."

"Please Megatron, give the sparkling a chance!"

Megatron refused to answer. Instead, he walked out of the room. Starlight collapsed at the thought of killing the sparkling. This war will get tough, that she knew. But her spark was too pure to let her sparkling die that way.

But what if it was the right thing to do?

* * *

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I hope to update again soon.

Oh, and happy Easter everyone!

BYES!


	12. Chapter 12

_Summary – When Knock Out and Arcee start to get close, everyone sees an unexpected change in themselves because of it. So it's up to Windswept and her friends to see what's going on. Meanwhile, Starscream has got a couple of new Decepticons under his belt since the end of the war and he'll do whatever it takes for him to rise and become the new leader of Earth._

Hey team! So I guess you could say this is me coming back a little. I'm not sure. I'm just a little lost at the moment. I've had a rough start to the year and I've just had practice exams to deal with over the last couple of weeks.

My plot bunnies have sort of faded away a little bit and as you might have noticed in my Following/Favourite stories list, I've kinda of dived into the DC Universe with Arrow, The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. I've been thinking over whether to jump over and type some stories up for those shows, but I just don't really have the strength to be typing right now.

So I'm really not sure what I'm up to at the moment. But I'm around and about. If you find a story in the Flash or Legends of Tomorrow Story Archives and see that I've left a review on it, just know that I'm still here, but just reading because it's my escape at the moment.

On with the chapter.

\- Windswept, Starlight, Aquastrike and Carly Esquivel all belong to me.

\- I also own the plot line to this story.

\- Transformers Prime does not belong to me sadly. All characters and the show itself belongs to its amazing creators.

* * *

"So the part about you guys being away on a camping holiday? That was when Jack went to Cybertron to reprogramme some key card?"

"Key to Vector Sigma," Jack corrected.

Carly nodded slowly, "Wow, so you've been to their planet?"

"The only way he could go was to wear this special suit because of the conditions there. If he were to go without it, he would've died," Raf explained.

"Hell."

Jack, Carly and Raf looked at Miko, who was playing with her hair in the mirror. Seeing her friends looking at her through the furniture, she turned around, "We've been through hell."

"Yeah by the sounds of it," Carly agreed, "So you've had to deal with metal bugs attacking most of your friends while the rest of them were stuck in the Arctic, you've had to deal with Jack's Mom popping her way in and out of the whole ordeal-"

"By the way, I need to tell Fowler to tell her what's going on before she ends up face-to-face with the 'Cons." With that, Jack sprinted out of the makeshift human bedroom to find the agent.

"-And you've had to deal with a leaderless team struggling to cope after your leader left 'cause of some memory thing?"

"Optimus had to stop Unicron from destroying the world and by doing that, he also gave up his memories. Megatron manipulated him, who became his previous self named Orion Pax, to join the Decepticons and stop us. Thankfully Optimus had a back-up plan, hence why he gave the Key to Vector Sigma to Jack," Raf explained further.

"Sounds like Boss Bot knew what he was doing," Carly shrugged in understanding.

"Unbelievable. She's not here a full week and she's already figured out Prime's nickname."

"'Bulkhead...she got that from you."

"Guess she's turning into a Wrecker like us, aye 'Jackie?"

"Don't push it, Lugnut."

"How long are you two gonna stand here until you realise that we can hear you?" Miko asked her two Wrecker friends that were standing in the doorway.

"Dunno, depends if Carly's willing to come from a ride in the Jackhammer," Wheeljack shrugged and attempted to leave the room.

Carly's eyes lit up like Christmas lights, "Really?!"

Wheeljack came back into view, "That's if you're interested, kid."

Carly coughed at the word, "First of all, don't call me kid. Second of all, I've been waiting for you to ask me for a ride since I practically got here!"

"Well, what are we waiting for? Wheeljack bent down and reached his hand out for the girl, "We gotta a Jackhammer to fly."

"See ya later guys!" Carly promised as she raced into Wheeljack's hand. He scooped the teenage girl up and away they went to cause whatever they called trouble in the Jackhammer.

"Is that safe?" Raf asked worriedly.

Miko shook her head instantly, "Nah, I've been on that ship. Remember when Bulkhead was out cold and Jackie wanted revenge? Well I'm sure you know the story but I followed-"

"Wait? You went on the Jackhammer with Wheeljack...WITHOUT ME?" Bulkhead asked in fake horror.

Miko rolled her eyes, "Caz will be fine, Raf. Besides, if I survived, then she'll survive too."

"A shame you did," Jack muttered when he walked back into the room.

"I HEARD THAT!" Miko screamed and attempted to make a dash at him.

Jack flinched instantly and took off once more, "Joking, JOKING!"

* * *

"I'm boooooored!"

"That's nice, but I don't really care."

"You're my brother, maybe you should care."

"But I don't so I DON'T!"

"Ughhh, why you gotta be so ruuuuuuude?!"

"I hate that song."

"It's a song?"

Starscream rolled his eyes and moved away from his sister, "I always thought you were ignorant of the world around you."

"Ignorant?!" Slipstream growled and stood up from her seat, "Who are you calling ignorant?!"

"You obviously."

"Arghhh, that's it!" Slipstream pulled out her sword from her hip and made a dash at Starscream.

The former SIC of the Decepticons was sauntering away from his sister when he heard fast footsteps behind him. Looking over his shoulder, Starscream shrieked and ducked away from Slipstream as she raised her sword to swipe at her brother. And her sword would've hit Starscream had Shockwave not butted in.

The silver and red jet looked up from his crouched position on the ground and found Shockwave staring down at him. On his shoulder was Slipstream, who was struggling to find away out of Shockwave's grip.

"I will not allow you two to fight for much longer. If it continues, I'll be forced to have to get rid of one of you. And it is not hard to decide who that will be." Shockwave then dumped Slipstream on the ground as if to prove a point.

But he wasn't proving anything. Starscream must have misunderstood as he began smirking at Slipstream was starting to get up.

"Yes, it isn't a difficult decision," The seeker folded his arms and watched his sister pick up her sword.

Slipstream slightly looked over her shoulder and hummed, "Yeah 'cause everyone wants to get rid of me." With that, she threw her sword onto the hilt on her hip and walked away.

Starscream continued smirking at her even though she had gone out of view. Shockwave, however, had not. He wandered in front of Starscream, showing authority because of his height over the seeker, "I was not meaning Slipstream."

Starscream let out a scared chuckle and rubbed the back of neck, slowing backing away from Shockwave, "O-Of course Shockwave."

Shockwave nodded and turned away from Starscream, making his way over to the controls of the ship.

Starscream straightened himself up and tried not to show fear as he walked away from the main room. He threw his arms in the air when he left. Why did Slipstream have to get away with everything?

* * *

Carly was agape. She had never been on a ship quite like this. In fact, she hadn't been on any sort of ship until the day she and Team Prime fled to the Nemesis to escape the Decepticons as they took over their former base.

And that was only less than a week ago.

"...And this is the autopilot button. Now, any questions?" Wheeljack asked her, pulling her away from her trance.

"Uhmmmm," she stuttered. She hadn't been paying attention to Wheeljack. She was too interested in looking around the ship, "No, I-I think I'm all good."

"You weren't listening, were you?"

"Sorry."

"I was expecting you to not listen. After all, you're a friend of Miko's. Of course you're not going to listen," Wheeljack cheekily said.

"Ouch, that hurt," Carly sarcastically commented back.

Wheeljack eyed the girl carefully. He sat down in the driver's seat and looked at the girl near the driving controls. He shook his head and his lips formed into a smile, "I've haven't met a kid similar to you since Miko. But between you and me, I like you better."

"I'll be happy to let her know where your loyalties lie," Carly winked.

Wheeljack shook his head again and got comfortable in his seat, "Right, are we ready to fly this thing?"

"Hell yeah!" Carly cheered. The Wrecker picked up Carly and placed her on his shoulder.

Wheeljack pressed a few buttons on the controls and after a moment, the ship began to rise up in the air. After its start-up process, the Wrecker pressed another button and then the ship began flying away from its seat on the Nemesis to who knew where.

Silence filled the ship for a little while until Carly spoke up, "Do you not like Ultra Magnus?"

"I'm sorry?"

"Miko mentioned that after Ultra Magnus made contact with you guys, you weren't the happiest bot in the room."

"You catch up real quick, kid," Wheeljack remarked before sighing, "I don't mind him, but it's just that his way of dealing with…certain situations doesn't suit my style. I prefer going in straight away and just getting the job done. But he just wants to muck around and 'wait for the right time'. I wasn't happy so I went solo."

"I get why you left, but how were you able to leave your teammates behind?" Carly asked

"Easy, I chose not to think about them. Didn't have to worry otherwise. Besides, Bulkhead was the only one I ever really gave a scrap about."

"What changed? How come you're here now?"

"The war ended. And I really didn't know what to do next so I came back and decided to stick around for a few weeks," Wheeljack told her, "But you know what happens. You have a change of heart and decide that you'll stick around longer than you wanted to begin with."

Carly shrugged and shook her head, "You have the choice to leave if you want. And yet, here you are flying me around – which by the way is the coolest – and wanting to fight alongside the Autobots instead of fighting from a distance like you normally do. Something's definitely changed."

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but Starscream's a serious threat this time," Wheeljack truthfully admitted. He pressed the autopilot button and his hands slowing moved away from the controls altogether. He looked down at his leg that had a now-faded scar mark on his thigh. He tapped the leg, "Going solo now wouldn't be the smartest option. Especially with what I did to protect a human of all things."

"You've really had a change heart," Carly told him, "Throwing yourself on the line for me. A human of all things."

Wheeljack hummed and nodded. She was right. He certainly had changed his feelings about everything. Besides, he now had a human to take care of. A year ago, he didn't have any intentions of having a charge. But he saw how much fun Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Arcee did with their charges.

He didn't believe it would be any different to them.

"You wanna shoot some missiles?"

Carly looked at him in surprise, "You're gonna let me do what now?"

"You heard me." Wheeljack grabbed Carly off his shoulder and onto the control panel, "Don't worry, these ones will self-destruct about five seconds after they're released because they don't have a target to focus on."

Carly looked up at him, "Are you sure?"

"Positive," Wheeljack nodded.

Carly looked back at the controls. There was button on the steering pad that showed a missile on it. She presumed that it was the button. Slowly, she reached out and pressed on the button lightly.

She jumped back into Wheeljack's hand when the missiles were released. Carly watched with intent as the missiles twirled around each other like they were dancing. Once they were a safe distance away from the ship, they self-destructed in grey smoke. The flashes of reds, oranges and yellows faded away after a few minutes.

Carly's mouth was agape for a few moments. Then her lips curled into a smile and threw her hands up in the air, "Boo-yah!" Then she punched the air in front of her, "Decepticons, watch out! Carly's not lettin' anyone ruin her day!"

Wheeljack smirked and looked at his charge. He'd never met a human like this one, and he had no intentions of letting her get away any time soon.

* * *

"**Starlight? Are you okay?**"

"Go away," Starlight snivelled, "I don't wanna talk to anyone!"

"Starlight, we're not gonna ask again. Are you okay?"

"No!" Starlight screamed, "There, happy?!"

"If you think we are, we're not. We just wanna talk to you." The door creaked open, revealing a yellow and black mech known to be Bumblebee and a red and light blue mech named Ultra Magnus.

Starlight stood up angrily, "What do you think you're doing?! This is my berthroom! You shouldn't be in here!"

"Maybe if you didn't leave the door unlocked, then we wouldn't have walked in," Ultra Magnus shrugged, closing the door behind him.

"**What's wrong Star?**" Bumblebee asked innocently, holding her hands.

"N-Nothing," Starlight answered quietly, pulling her hands away from Bumblebee. She sat back down on her berth and placed her hands in her lap.

"We can't help you if you don't tell us what's wrong," Ultra Magnus told her.

"What if you can't help me?" Starlight retorted.

Bumblebee bent down in front of her, "**We don't know that unless we know what's wrong with you. Come on Star, you can trust us.**"

"I..." Starlight sighed, "I'm pregnant."

"What? How?" Ultra Magnus asked instantly.

"A few weeks ago we had this party to celebrate three months of peace. You remember, Bee?" When Bumblebee nodded, she continued, "And….hah, there may have been some high-grade lying around and I may have got drunk to the point where I couldn't remember who I slept with until the next morning."

"**Star, who did you sleep with?**" Bumblebee asked.

"Megatron."

"**Seriously?**" Bumblebee asked in shock, "**Now I see why you're upset. Must have been a shock.**"

Ultra Magnus watched the femme, knowing that there was more to the story.

"That's not why I'm upset Bee," Starlight whispered, "Megatron doesn't want me to keep it."

"**That's horrible!**" Bumblebee whirred in an upset tone.

Ultra Magnus punched the door and stormed out of the room.

"Magnus! WAIT!" Starlight yelled as she and Bumblebee attempted to chase after him. They watched him make his way down the corridor and turn to head to the main room. Starlight looked at Bumblebee, "What do you think he's gonna do?"

"**I have a feeling I know. Come on!**" Bumblebee told her as he rushed down the corridor.

Starlight shook her head and chased after them. She knew deep down that this was not going to end well.

* * *

So that's it for now guys. I'm sorry it took so long. I'll try and get to my other stories soon but I'm just struggling with my plot bunnies.

I want to take the time to discuss how precious life is. Last night I was distraught to discover that one of my favourite Youtubers Christina Grimmie was killed just hours after performing at her concert with Before You Exit. I looked up to her and I'm so angry/upset that someone could just take an innocent individual like Grimmie away like that. So here I am, listening to her on Spotify while I finish up this chapter.

R.I.P Christina Grimmie – Taken far too soon.

So today, I'm just gonna take a day off and just listen to her music while I cry my eyes out. What is this world turning to? I don't live in the US, but her death will definitely change something. I'm sorry to end this on a somber note, but I honestly have no words to describe how much of a talent we have lost.

Bye guys :'(


	13. Chapter 13

_Summary – When Knock Out and Arcee start to get close, everyone sees an unexpected change in themselves because of it. So it's up to Windswept and her friends to see what's going on. Meanwhile, Starscream has got a couple of new Decepticons under his belt since the end of the war and he'll do whatever it takes for him to rise and become the new leader of Earth._

\- Windswept, Starlight, Aquastrike and Carly Esquivel all belong to me.

\- I also own the plot line to this story.

\- Transformers Prime does not belong to me sadly. All characters and the show itself belongs to its amazing creators.

* * *

The main room in the Nemesis was quiet, surprising given the tension around each Cybertronian on the ship at the moment. Megatron and Optimus were overlooking Soundwave and Ratchet as they searched for any Energon or Decepticon sighting. The humans were with Arcee and Bulkhead, chilling and talking. Smokescreen and Windswept were staring out the window, watching the clouds floating around.

The silence suited at the moment. Each member of Team Prime was stressed over the Black Energon. They weren't sure what was next to happen. Nor did they want to. They just wanted a day of peace, It was all they simply asked for.

But today wasn't that day.

"Megatron!" Heads turned to the door. It slid open, revealing a highly pissed Ultra Magnus. He looked around the room, silently acknowledging each face that looked at him. Then he found his target slowly making his way toward him. Ultra Magnus wandered quickly to Megatron, eager to do what he was planning.

Bumblebee appeared in the door, quickly followed by Starlight. He looked around and saw Ultra Magnus on his way to Megatron, "**Ultra Magnus! Don't!**"

"Megatron! Look out!" Starlight screamed at the father of their sparkling

Their warnings fell on deaf ears. Megatron continued to walk up to Ultra Magnus, noting silently that he was not happy, "Magnus? Are you-"

Megatron was unable to finish his sentence as Ultra Magnus' fist collided with his jaw. The punch was strong enough to knock the warlord onto his knees. After a moment, he felt around his jaw and sure enough, there were little drips of Energon at corner of his mouth. He looked up and saw that Ultra Magnus was ready to throw another fist at him.

"MAGNUS! Stand down!" Optimus yelled at the light blue and red mech, grabbing his wrist to stop him from punching Megatron again.

Everyone started crowding around the scene. Ratchet and Soundwave attempted to help Megatron up and away from the scene. Windswept looked at the retreating figures of the trio before looking up at Ultra Magnus, "What the hell was that for?"

"He got Starlight sparked!" Ultra Magnus revealed.

The team stood in silence and turned to Starlight. The femme felt herself wanting to slink away back to her berthroom and never come out for days on end. She was embarrassed that the team found out the way they did.

"Starlight?" The femme looked up to see Optimus' concerned face looking down at her. He had now let go of Ultra Magnus and he'd been moved away by Windswept, "Is this true?"

"I'm sorry you had to find out this way," Starlight whispered, "But the reason Ultra Magnus is angry is that Megatron doesn't want me to keep it."

Arcee wrapped Starlight in a hug, "Oh sweetspark."

The humans, who were still a safe distance from the scene, watched as Starlight collapsed and cried her eyes out in front of them. Then their eyes shifted to Windswept and Ultra Magnus over on the other side of the room where they were conversing.

And by conversing, it was Windswept practically screaming her head off at her father figure.

"Seriously Magnus? Did you really have to punch him?!" Windswept screeched after hearing what Ultra Magnus had to say.

"He wants Starlight to abort the sparkling. A TRUE Autobot would allow her to keep it!" Ultra Magnus argued, "Megatron is not, and will never be, a true Autobot. No matter what he says." The Commander of the Wreckers then pointed at the group with Starlight, more so at Optimus, "I don't even understand why he is giving the mech a chance."

"Every being is capable of change," Windswept told him simply, "We live by that code."

"We?" Ultra Magnus raised an eyebrow, "Windswept, you are no Prime."

"I'm the niece of one. And I am choosing to live by the code he does."

"You won't get anywhere if you continue to follow his rule, 'Swept."

Windswept sighed, refusing to argue with her father figure. She walked away from Ultra Magnus, who just watched her move to her friends.

"**Star, you and Megatron need to talk this through**," Bumblebee advised the femme.

"I know," Starlight nodded, "He'll know that he will. After all, I've got some bodyguards apparently."

Windswept shrugged and looked at Ultra Magnus, "Magnus is nothing to worry about. He is no Prime."

Ultra Magnus, having heard Windswept's smart comment, grumbled and stormed out of the room.

"Someone needs to go talk to him," Smokescreen hummed. Without even looking, the rookie grabbed Windswept's arm. He looked down at his girl and wasn't surprised to find her on her way to talk to him. He looked down at Windswept who was looking up at him, "Someone that isn't you."

Windswept crossed her arms and pouted.

As everyone discussed who should go talk to Ultra Magnus, they failed to notice a certain Prime moving away from the scene.

* * *

"Magnus really did a number on you," Knock Out commented as he dabbed the wound so it would be free of Energon Blood.

"Mmmm, I know." Knock Out looked up at the former Decepticon Warlord and noticed him staring right back. He wasn't looking too pleased.

"Sorry," Knock Out apologised and continued.

"You have any reason as to why Magnus would want to use violence like that?" Megatron asked, looking at the orange and white medic, "Of course, apart from the obvious reason."

"Magnus is protective of younglings he knows have good futures ahead of them," Ratchet answered simply, "Although, his anger seems to be coming from elsewhere."

"Windswept?"

Ratchet snorted, "She's too obvious. Though not a bad thought, but I doubt it's her. It's probably because he's disappointed in Starlight for behaving the way she is."

"I need to speak to her," Megatron stated, "Tell her my true feelings about...this situation."

Now it was Knock Out's turn to snort at the former Decepticon Warlord, "Sparkling, Megatron. Not a situation."

Megatron just rolled his eyes, "I will call it however **I **want to call it."

"As you wish," Knock Out sighed with a bored tone as he finished cleaning up the wound, "There, all better. Just don't go pissing anyone else off."

Megatron stood up from his seat and walked towards the doors. As they opened for him, the tallest mech in the room looked back at his crimson medic, "I won't guarantee any promises." With that, Megatron walked through the doors before they closed.

* * *

"Still can't believe Ultra Magnus went and punched Megatron like that," Raf whispered in the human bedroom.

"I can't believe Megatron **didn't** fight back," Jack mused from his position on his bed, "Though probably better off since he didn't."

"Are you kidding?!" Miko yelled, still lying on her bed and staring up at the roof, "We coulda seen an epic throwdown between Magnus and Megsy and what does Boss Bot have to do?" She crossed her arms, "Ruin everything."

"Prime's just doing his job." The humans turned or looked up to find a familiar face at the door.

"Agent Fowler," Raf greeted.

Agent Fowler moved out of the doorway for another familiar face. Jack's face instantly lit up and began moving to the door.

"Mom?!" June raced up to her son who hugged her once they were close enough.

"Honey, I've been trying to get in contact with you for days!" June sobbed, "Why haven't you responded?!

"Security measures Miss Darby," Fowler told her. Then he looked at Miko and Raf, "Your families are safe too. We've evacuated them and everyone else in Jasper. We've told them of a high risk radiation leak. We also explained to them that you came in contact with the leak and are under observation with a high no-visitors policy." Then Fowler turned all his attention on Raf, "Unfortunately son, the Esquivel family is also missing one of its older children. Carlotta Esquivel."

"About that Mr. Fowler." The humans looked in the doorway and found Carly leaning up against the doorframe. She walked up and extended her hand out to him, "**Carly** Esquivel. Pleased to meet ya!"

Fowler's jaw fell to the floor as he shook Carly's hand, "You've gotta be kidding me."

"The Decepticons nearly killed her, Agent Fowler," Jack told the Agent, "We had no choice."

After shaking hands with the Agent, Carly pulled Raf close to her and rested her hands on his shoulders, "So what has Starscream done to Jasper?"

"It seems that Starscream is more concerned with something else. Jasper hasn't been touched or tampered with since its occupants were evacuated. However, recent sightings are confirming that he's got his mindless drones scouting the area for any sign of life," Fowler explained.

"So, when do we go home?" Miko asked.

"No one's getting in or out of Jasper," Fowler answered quickly, "That is a definite."

Raf's face turned sour, "A definite?"

"I'm sorry son."

"For how long?" June asked.

"Until Starscream and every last Decepticon are gone," Fowler promised.

Carly sighed, "So we'll be on this ship forever."

"This is Starscream we're talking about," Jack pointed out.

"Yeah, him and his heels," Miko giggled.

Fowler just rolled his eyes, "I never said forever. Team Prime has been through more than you can believe. Trust me, Starscream is nowhere near a threat."

Miko snorted, "It's not Starscream we're concerned about."

"What do you mean?" Fowler asked sharply.

"You don't know?" Jack whispered.

Fowler looked and pointed at Jack, "Tell me. Now."

* * *

Ultra Magnus watched as the clouds drift by the Nemesis. Or watch the Nemesis float past the clouds? The Commander of the Wreckers really couldn't care what way to put it. All he knew was that he was standing outside on top of the former Decepticon warship. All he cared about was this damned war.

And its people involved.

Why was Prime so angry about one small punch on Megatron? Well, it wasn't small, but it was a big deal. If Megatron hadn't defected to the Autobots, Optimus probably wouldn't care. But he does.

All because he's a Prime.

"Ultra Magnus?"

The mech sighed at the voice, "Yes Optimus?"

"Was there any reason to punch Megatron like you did?"

"Optimus, he sparked Starlight. He wants her to abort the sparkling," Ultra Magnus told him. He turned around and looked at Optimus, "And you of all people and taking his side. I hear nearly five or so months ago you had intentions of killing that sparkless monster!"

"Megatron has changed. He has seen the error of his ways."

"How?" Ultra Magnus asked simply, "How did he figure out he was doing something wrong."

"Because he realised how much pain he caused for us after Optimus was reverted back to Orion Pax." The two taller figures of Optimus Prime and Ultra Magnus turned around and found Arcee standing a few steps further away from the two. She wandered fearlessly up to Ultra Magnus, "Without Optimus, there was no Team Prime. We weren't whole. We had no one to guide us. And once we reclaimed our leader," Arcee looked up to her leader and friend with a small smile, "We were whole again."

"So he came around just because of the damages that he caused?" Ultra Magnus asked. When Arcee and Optimus nodded, he shook his head in disbelief, "The mech has a spark after all."

"Maybe you should apologise for your behaviour," Optimus advised.

The Commander snorted and walked away, "Apologise?! Yeah, I'll decide that when he decides his sparkling's fate."

Arcee sighed as she watched Ultra Magnus disappear into the ship, "Magnus is still the same piece of scrap he's always been. Stubborn."

"Ultra Magnus is...hard to work with at times-"

"Don't remind me," Arcee interrupted smartly.

Optimus looked down at her, "-But he is a worthy fighter of our cause. He deserves more credit than others themselves realise."

"That's why you're our leader, Optimus. The one who always sees the best in people," Arcee commented, "Even when they don't see it in themselves." The femme grabbed her arm and just stared into the clouds.

"I hope you do not mind that Ultra Magnus has taken over your position as second-in-command."

"I was your second-in-command?" Arcee just about squeaked out, "I thought Windswept was."

Optimus blinked, "Windswept is far too young to handle responsibilities like that. I have always implied that you were my second-in-command."

That's when it clicked. He had implied it so many times. She just failed to realise, "Oh." She hummed, "Well, it's okay. Ultra Magnus is far more capable anyway. And it means I have more time with Knock Out."

Optimus made a quiet disgusted sound. One that Arcee didn't fail to pick up.

She had been waiting to ask this question for days. She just hadn't found the right time until now, "Have you got a problem with me being with Knock Out? Because if you do, I would like to know what that problem is."

Optimus just shrugged, "Problem? I have no problem with your relationship with Knock Out."

"You're lying to me."

"What has made you think I am lying?"

Aree crossed her arms, "You shrugged. I know that you only do that when you have problem with something. A big problem."

Optimus turned around and looked Arcee in the optic, "My problem with your relationship, Arcee is that there is other people out here that maybe unhappy that you are not available anymore. You may think they are unable to have feelings such as jealousy or being in love, but that is what **you** believe."

Arcee failed to click, "Then why don't you tell them to be honest and tell me or Knock Out?"

"Arcee, that person is-"

"_Optimus? Fowler is here, and be wants to speak to you and Windswept. Now._"

Optimus sighed and placed a hand on his audio receptor, "Now is not the best-"

"_**Now**_ _Optimus._"

Optimus looked down at Arcee, who looked to him for an answer. He shook his head and just walked away.

"-Me Arcee."

"What?" Arcee asked. But Optimus failed to look at her. That was when everything fell into place, "You what Optimus?!"

* * *

Hey guys!

I've been typing this up all week and now I just wanted to post it and work on the next chapter 'cause this one is getting too long.

I've gotta go 'cause I've done this at school and I'm about to leave for my next class.

BYES!


	14. Chapter 14

_Summary – When Knock Out and Arcee start to get close, everyone sees an unexpected change in themselves because of it. So it's up to Windswept and her friends to see what's going on. Meanwhile, Starscream has got a couple of new Decepticons under his belt since the end of the war and he'll do whatever it takes for him to rise and become the new leader of Earth._

So there's a reason why this chapter is a little longer than all the others so far. It's because I have little summaries for each chapter so I know what I'm doing. I need to do this chapter a little longer to fit in with my plans. After this chapter, there will only be at least 11 chapters left in this story. I know that this chapter is VERY messy, but I'll try and tie everything up in the next few chapters so I can move on with whatever I have planned next (Ah, ah, you ain't getting anything outta me)

Anyway guys, let's get going.

\- Windswept, Starlight, Aquastrike and Carly Esquivel all belong to me.

\- I also own the plot line to this story.

\- Transformers Prime does not belong to me sadly. All characters and the show itself belongs to its amazing creators.

* * *

"PRIME!" Agent Fowler growled when the leader of the Autobots appeared into the room, "When we're you planning on explaining to me about this whole Black Energon situation?!"

"Agent Fowler, we are taking care of the situation swiftly," Optimus began.

"So 'taking care of the situation' means 'Black Energon hurting any target it finds?!'" Fowler angrily yelled.

"Chill out Fowler," Windswept told him, appearing beside Optimus, "We're doing everything we can to handle it, okay."

"Well you're obviously not handling it PROPERLY!" Fowler yelled, "Not even a month into it and someone's almost died from the stuff!" The Agent then sighed and face palmed, his hand falling slowly down his face. His hand stop at his mouth where he began thinking, "So do we know how to stop this 'Black Energon' madness."

Windswept sighed and blinked very slowly, "Fowler, we're finding ways to deal with it, okay." Then she turned away and muttered, "Just let us sort it out."

"I would leave **you** to it," Fowler began, his eyes looking directly at Windswept, "But this is a matter that I will not allow you to handle on your own." The darker-skinned man jumped off his pedestal and began walking to the doors that were the exit of the main room.

"We won't let you do that, Fowler."

Agent Fowler looked up and wasn't surprised to find who it was stopping him from walking out of the room, "Ahhh, the 'loose cannon'." Then Fowler saw the scar of the Wrecker's thigh, "I see you have done well recovering. Must have been through a lot."

Wheeljack snorted, "I wasn't as critical as Windswept was during the war." Then he bent down and looked at the Agent in the eye, "Listen to me, Agent. Prime and 'Swept know what their doing. I suggest you let them figure this out before making the call on whether getting others involved."

"This is our war to fight," Aquastrike pointed out as she, Bulkhead and Dreadwing came forward.

"We won't let the humans fight for us," Bulkhead added.

Dreadwing took a step ahead of the Autobots, "It will only result in human casualties."

Agent Fowler looked around the trio of Cybertronians that had just pitched in. Then he heard thundering footsteps behind. He looked over his shoulder and nearly jumped at the sight of Megatron literally towering over him.

"We don't even know what Black Energon could do to humans," The silver and purple mech told the Agent, "If Dark Energon could nearly kill someone like the smallest human we know, then who knows what Black Energon could do."

The dark-skinned man looked behind the former Decepticon Warlord and found Starlight, Bumblebee and Knock Out nodding in agreement behind him.

"Please Fowler," Smokescreen pleaded, "Just give us one chance."

Fowler face-palmed and sighed, "Fine." Then he pointed at Optimus and Windswept, "If whatever your next scheme is doesn't work, then I'll have no choice to bring my men into it." Fowler walked fearlessly past Wheeljack and through to the open door. He looked over his shoulder, "No matter the cost of human lives that are at risk." The doors slammed closed behind him.

"Well, at least we got some time to sort things out," Smokescreen shrugged.

"Yeah, but the problem is, how much time do we have before Starscream decides to make an attack?" Starlight asked.

An alert sound rang out through the room. The group of Cybertronians looked over to the systems where Ratchet and Soundwave were. Ratchet sensed their eyes looking over at him and turned around with a grim expression.

"Not a lot of time."

* * *

Arcee breathed in and out slowly, trying to process what Optimus had just admitted to her. It was difficult for it to really sink in because she didn't want to believe that this could be happening right now. That she had to find out while she was in a relationship with a mech that she thought was the one.

Was he still the one?

The blue and pink femme was unsure now. Of course, Optimus just had...well, everything to make a femme melt like the way he does. He's caring, he know's what he's doing, he's protective. He's just...it was so hard to explain,

And there was Knock Out… Well, he had everything too. He was caring, protective and knows what he's doing.

So as she sat on her berth she was currently sharing with Knock Out, fidgeting with her hands as she figured out what was next.

"ARCEE?!"

"We need you in the main room! NOW!"

Arcee stood up at the sound of her friends calling for her. She opened the door and peeked through the gap. Through it, she found Aquastrike and Dreadwing rushing to her.

She stepped out of the doorway, closed it, and looked at them, "What's going on?"

"This is it," Dreadwing answered simply.

"Starscream and Slipstream have announced their plans for a stand-off between us and them. He wants us there in a few hours…" Aquastrike explained, but fell short of what she wanted to say next.

Arcee could sense there was more, "Or what?"

Dreadwing put a comforting hand on Aquastrike's shoulder and looked at Arcee, "Or he'll start bombing Jasper and neighbouring cities with Black Energon."

* * *

As Starlight prepared for what was coming next, a sharp pain shot up through her body, stopping her from doing whatever she was doing. She reached for the cabinet beside her berth, she gasped in slight pain as it finally disappeared.

She laughed in relief and looked down to her stomach where her sparkling was growing. There was a small bump, evident enough to know that it wasn't any weight gain of any kind.

"Man, you really wanna get outta there and fight, huh?" Starlight rubbed her stomach as she continued wandering around and figuring out what she needed, "It's okay baby girl or boy-"

Starlight stood silent as found Megatron leaning up against her berthroom door. She crossed her arms, "What do you want?"

"I'm sorry."

"You should be, asking me to abort a sparkling that is OURS. Even without your support, I am still keeping it."

"I know," Megatron began as he moved to sit on her berth, pulling the owner with him, "But you must understand that I am not what really the fatherly type. My...personality as well as my actions do not fit the father bill."

"Have you ever been a father, Megatron?" Starlight asked in a whisper.

"No," Megatron answered quickly, "However I did have to look after Windswept after her parents were murdered. But even then, I didn't do a very good job. I drove her way to your side, where I have noticed over the time that I have known her that she has been very happy."

"Just because you drove your niece away, doesn't mean you're gonna drive your own sparkling away," Starlight whispered, rubbing his arm, "It's okay to be scared Megatron. Believe me, I am too."

"It doesn't seem like you are."

"Maybe it's because I'm replacing my fear with joy at the thought of the sparkling being free. Well, once the war ends."

This made Megatron just sit and think. He had never thought he would father a sparkling in his life. It just didn't seem right to him. But the thought of having a little mech or femme like him, in personality, looks, whatever, it was starting to win him over.

"You don't have to go through this alone. I'll be here," Megatron whispered, "I'll help you raise our sparkling."

"Oh thank you Megatron!" Starlight hugged the former Warlord, "That's one thing off my mind! After this battle, I'll be happy to finally be able to not be in firing line."

At first surprised, Megatron slowly hugged the smaller femme back. Then realization dawned upon him when he remembered what Starlight had said.

"You do not plan on fighting with us, Starlight." It was a simple statement, but Starlight knew the answer.

"Don't be silly. Of course I'm fighting with you guys," Starlight laughed as she stood up.

"No you are not!" Megatron roared as he followed her around the room, "You are carrying our sparkling. I will not allow you to possibly lose it."

Starlight whipped around to face him, "You can't stop me Megatron. Besides, this is what could possibly be our final fight for, what could be, forever. I don't want to miss out. And this team needs all hands on deck."

Megatron went to say something but closed his mouth when Starlight continued, "I'll be going regardless of what you or the rest of the team says." She grimaced when she felt her sparkling kicked once more, "Besides, this little femme or mech really wants to fight with me."

Megatron rolled his eyes. He was definitely going to be a father of a fighter...

* * *

"He's going to what?!" Miko screeched when she heard the news.

"Starscream's too weak to do something like that. Surely he doesn't have the supplies," Jack hoped.

"Not unless he has a team behind him," Rafael pointed out.

"Yeah, he has this blue and purple female with him," Carly said, "She has a black sword."

"Slipstream," Jack identified.

A moment silence seeped through the room that belonged to the humans. Carly and Raf were on his bed, just holding each other close. Jack sat on his bed opposite to them while Miko paced around the room.

"So...If Starscream does manage to bomb Jasper…"

"Miko, he won't," Jack interrupted.

Miko swung around to face him, "But what if he does? What if he harms other cities. Like, what if it get's so out of control, we can't stop them."

Jack was speechless. This usually over-confident girl was now suggesting that she wasn't so confident in everything after all.

"You mean, what happens to us if there's no one to stop him?" Carly asked.

Raf only answered with another question, "What about after the war, when we've all mostly grown up? What happens then?"

Silence enveloped them once more as their minds were intruded by endless thoughts of, not only their futures, but the risks of the war not being beaten. The former however, was the one that was scaring them more than they even realised.

* * *

The cool air surrounding the Cybertronians standing on the deck of the warship failed to comfort them. This was it. The possible end of the war was now on the horizon. They could feel it, tasting sweet victory on their lips. But first, they had to fight for it. And was what they were planning to do.

The Wreckers, Bulkhead, Wheeljack and Ultra Magnus stood together, their weapons activated and ready to fight. In Ultra Magnus' hand was the Forge of Solus Prime. Without its energy, Optimus and Megatron decided it would be used as a valuable weapon regardless (**AN: Just pretend that the energy had been drained out of it okay**).

Bumblebee, Smokescreen and Knock Out all stood together too. Each of them had very powerful relics with them. Bumblebee had the Polarity Gauntlet, Smokescreen the Phase Shifter and Knock Out was given the Immobiliser.

Starlight stood beside them, holding the Apex Armour which Megatron forced her to wear. And despite protests from everyone, the pink and white femme had stuck to her word and was going to fight on behalf of her sparkling. With Bumblebee, Smokescreen and Knock Out, she was part of the team known as Team Alpha

Aquastrike, Dreadwing, Arcee and Windswept were all together too. They had their weapons ready to go. Aquastrike had triple blasters which meant extra firepower, Dreadwing had his cannon and his sword, Arcee and Windswept both had their small blasters whirring as well as their combat skills that they had brushed up on. Together, with their leaders, they were Team Omega

"Autobots and former Decepticons, it is time. Today we will do what we must to ensure the demise of Starscream's team and Black Energon. We must stick together. Even if we must go rogue, make sure you have someone to back you up. This Black Energon can kill you quickly if no one is there when you are struck."

After Megatron's speech, Optimus reached for his audio receptor, "Ratchet, is the Groundbridge ready?"

"Opening it in three...two...one…"

Once the countdown had ended, the familiar blue and green swirling portal came to life in front of them.

"The Wreckers will enter first to secure the area," Optimus began and turned to Ultra Magnus to whom he simply nodded to.

Ultra Magnus nodded back and transformed into a similar vehicles to the Primes. Through his rear view mirrors, he watched Bulkhead and Wheeljack transform. With the Forge strapped safely in his trailer, he began driving into the Groundbridge.

"Team Alpha, you are next."

Starlight watched as her team transformed and began driving into the portal. She looked behind her and smiled at Windswept and Aquastrike before walking to them. She pulled out twin Kunai knives. There were both rich black with deep pink handles. They had very sharp points and the blades themselves were enough to slit someone's throat very quickly.

She moved her hands out for each femme to take the knife, "Take them. I won't really have use for them if I've got this." She placed the Apex Armour over her spark chamber which as soon as it was secure, began wrapping Starlight in the Armour.

"Be careful," Windswept warned as she grabbed the knife tightly.

Aquastrike nodded as she took her knife, "Yeah I've been waiting for the day to an Aunt!"

"Starlight," Optimus grabbed the femmes attention. Knowing what he meant, she nodded and ran through the Groundbridge.

"Team Omega, roll out!" Everyone transformed when Optimus announced the command and, like he said, rolled out after him.

What greeted them wasn't a pleasant sight.

Already the Autobots and Decepticon were deep in battle. Multiple Vehicon fliers or fighters were already raining down the gunfire upon them. Team Omega was already on their case, eager to get rid of them.

The Vehicons were quickly to shoot their fire at the team, despite not having the best aim. However, even though they continued to miss, Windswept was starting to notice that something was off. So did Arcee.

"'Swept!" Arcee yelled when she saw Windswept nearly collapse. She quickly ducked and leaped around the firepower and grabbed her friend by the arm. When she helped her up, she noticed why Windswept was feeling different.

"Your eyes. They're black."

Windswept blinked a few times, taking in Arcee's words. That's when she came to the realisation. She gasped breathlessly, the panic noticeable in her eyes. Arcee put two and two together quickly

"The Vehicons have Black Energon inside of their weapons!" The blue femme announced in warning.

"Damn it!" Wheeljack yelled in frustration as he had to dodge a blaster shot from a Vehicon who seemed to have good aim.

"Seems that we supposedly have the higher number," Starscream sneered as he and his sister came into view.

The Wreckers were quick to deal with them, but when they brought out the Black Energon swords, Wheeljack quickly grew angry.

"Seriously?!" He growled as he felt himself step back with a wobble. That was when he knew he was starting to become affected by the Energon.

Wheeljack fell onto one knee when the effects started to take a hold of him. But what surprised him were the hands on his arms attempting to help him up. The Wrecker looked up.

"Prime?"

Smokescreen looked back at his girl and saw her condition deteriorate rapidly. He quickly ran to her side. He knew he should've been helping his team. He looked back and saw them fighting with Ultra Magnus and Bulkhead against Slipstream and Starscream. He knew that they would be okay if they worked together. But he needed to protect his love. He was already scared for her enough, he was no state to lose her.

"You need to get out of here!"

"N-no, I can't. I need t-to stay here and f-fight with you," Windswept argued with a stutter.

"Windswept!" Optimus yelled when he brought Wheeljack over, "You and Wheeljack must get out of here. It is too dangerous for both of you to be here fighting with us. We cannot allow the loss of two key members of our family."

"You al-ready have," Windswept muttered with a gasp as a Groundbridge portal swirled open.

"Ours?" Wheeljack asked.

The occupants that wandered out of it gave them the answer straight out.

"Airachnid!" Arcee growled.

"Dead End," Starlight muttered.

Bumblebee whirred and pointed behind the new visitors, "**What the hell is that behind them?!**"

"Oh, this creature?" Slipstream smirked, "Meet our new friend, created by Shockwave using the the remains of their CNA, I give you the Predacon, Predaking!"

Megatron gasped at the sight, "No."

The Predacon roared, the fire floating towards the Cybertronians. It did nothing to really hurt them, except heating their armour a 'teeny tiny little' bit.

"Ultra Magnus, take the Wreckers and Team Alpha to fight against the Predacon," Optimus instructed.

"Wheeljack, get you and Windswept to safety," Megatron told them, "Team Omega, Optimus and I will cover for you."

The two nodded and slowly, they stood up and moved away from the scene.

"I don't think so. Airachnid's done for!" Arcee yelled as she transformed into her motorcycle form and rapidly drove to deal with the spider-con.

"Arcee, NO!" Optimus shouted at the femme to no avail.

Once the femme was close enough, Arcee transformed and went to perform a kick at Airachnid. But the spider could sense what was coming and quickly used her extra appendages to grab Arcee and swing her away from her. The blue femme, despite being thrown in the air, managed to land perfectly.

She couldn't stay there for long as she had duck and leap away from the bundles of web that Airachnid was throwing at her. Arcee was an agile femme so it was working in her favour that she was able to leap away from the web.

Growing frustrated, Airachnid snarled and leaped at the femme, continuing their little sparring match that was distancing herself further and further away from the fight scene.

Starlight was fighting the Predacon to no avail with Team Alpha and the Wreckers. They tried everything in attempt to stop the Predacon, but all the got back was fire from Predaking when the he roared.

"**Starlight! Behind you!**" Bumblebee yelled.

The pink and white femme in the Apex Armour looked around. Behind her was the familiar red, green and yellow mech that frightened her and many other Cybertronians.

"Dead End," Starlight whispered.

Seeing Dead End distracted her from the battle behind her. Predaking must have swiped at her back because the next ring Starlight knew, she was flying through the air. Starlight attempted to make her landing stick, but being stuck in the armour didn't help her. So she landed on her back first before flipping onto her front. Doing this deactivated the Apex Armour and the relic disappeared out of view. Starlight rolled a few more times before landing onto her front and scraping the ground with her armour.

She groaned as she looked up and found Dead End racing towards her. The poor femme knew that the sparkling was weighing her down, but she didn't intend on giving up just yet. So she stood up as fast she could and charged at the creature.

"You wanna dance?" Starlight challenged.

The creature just breathed in and out slowly in answer.

Starlight hummed, "Sorry, but the silent type isn't my kind of dance partner."

The two fought hand to hand as each one tried to get the upper hand on another. The two both had equal strength. And that wasn't good in Starlight's case, especially with her future son or daughter on board.

Dreadwing's sword clashed with Slipstream's Black Energon sword as the two dueled on their own.

"Dreadwing, you may as well give up. Aren't you loyal to the Decepticons?" Slipstream asked in a purr.

Dreadwing snarled, "I am my own being. I can choose who I am loyal to."

"Big mistake!" Slipstream growled through gritted teeth as she attempted to swing her sword at Deadwing.

But Dreadwing saw it coming and instantly ducked before punching Slipstream as she was gathering herself up. She was flung a bit of a distance away from everyone else. When she got herself up, she felt around for the sword only to find her brother holding it.

"You pathetic wimp!" Slipstream yelled as she stood up and snatched the sword of her brother, "Why aren't you helping us fight?!"

"It seems that we are outnumbered in strength. Look at our minions." Starscream pointed at the slowly growing pile of dead Vehicons, "They're scrapped. The Predacon is going nowhere. And Dead End and Airachnid are dealing with things themselves. We must retreat before they gain the upper hand."

"I must agree with you," Slipstream said in a deflated tone as she pulled something from her waist, "When you're ready."

"Get off me!" Bumblebee's audio receptors almost twitched at the sound of one his friends screaming. He delivered the final punch to one of the Vehicons he was fighting and saw Starlight pinned to the ground.

The femme was fighting to get up, but Dead End wasn't intending on letting her up. Instead, he sensed something was. He looked at her stomach and found the small bump. He raised his clawed hands in the air.

Starlight was crying now, "NO!"

Arcee and Airachnid meanwhile we're still fighting. The only problem with their fight was both the fact they were so agile and that Arcee was only seeing red. Red for revenge for Airachnid had done to Tailgate all those years ago. And when she had put Airachnid in that stasis pod nearly a year ago, she thought that she really had got rid of her.

She wasn't planning on Starscream coming out of retirement and open Airachnid's pod.

"You know what your problem is Arcee? Why you can't beat me?" Airachnid began taunting, "It's because all you can think about is Tailgate. And how much he would want you to destroy me." Airachnid grabbed Arcee's wrist and pulled her a little close for comfort, "But Arcee, is that what he would want you to do?"

Arcee screamed in rage and kicked at her enemy, freeing herself when she finally kicked Airachnid's appendages that were holding her. While Airachnid sorted herself out, Arcee continued seeing red and leaped at Airachnid once more.

Team Omega and their leaders were simply still fighting the Decepticons when something happened. A Groundbridge portal opened up behind the Vehicons, and almost instantly, they started filing into the bridge.

"What's going on?" Aquastrike asked

"We thought we might leave you a little present," Starscream answered, showing a little remote control and pressing a button on it.

Once Predaking had stomped his way through the bridge, the twins quickly followed and with that, the bridge closed.

Bulkhead shrugged, "What did he mean by-"

Suddenly the ground started shaking beneath them and the next thing they knew, everything was black.

* * *

What have I done? Guess you'll have to read the next chappy when I update.

BYE GUYS!


	15. Chapter 15

_Summary – When Knock Out and Arcee start to get close, everyone sees an unexpected change in themselves because of it. So it's up to Windswept and her friends to see what's going on. Meanwhile, Starscream has got a couple of new Decepticons under his belt since the end of the war and he'll do whatever it takes for him to rise and become the new leader of Earth_.

Party time! Party time! I am on holiday! YUS! About bloody time! This term has been one of my hardest yet but it's not gonna get any easier. Anyway, during the week I have been spitting out little pieces of this chapter and I think this one is going to be a goodie so let's get started!

\- Windswept, Starlight, Aquastrike and Carly Esquivel all belong to me.

\- I also own the plot line to this story.

\- Transformers Prime does not belong to me sadly. All characters and the show itself belongs to its amazing creators.

* * *

Silence was what everyone could hear. Nothing was moving, nothing was making any sort of news. It was almost scary for them. They all waited for someone to make a move, but it seemed like no one was willing to.

Until…

"Autobots? Respond!" Optimus called in his .

"What the heck just happened?" Aquastrike was the first to reply.

"I have no idea," Dreadwing replied back.

"Scrap, I have no idea where I am!" Bulkhead screamed in fear.

"**Get off me, Bulk**!" Bumblebee growled.

One by one, each of the Cybertronians stood up. Megatron and Optimus were standing and searching for any signs of life. They looked amongst the group and mentally ticked off each one.

Aquastrike, Dreadwing, Ultra Magnus, Smokescreen, and Knock Out looked at one another, checking each other for injuries and making sure they were okay.

"Bumblebee? Bulkhead?"

"Down here!"

Megatron and Optimus walked over to a dip in the ground. The distance between the where they were, which was above the dip to where Bulkhead and Bumblebee were was quite deep.

"Are you two alright?" Megatron asked.

Bumblebee threw his hand in the air and gave a thumbs up as Bulkhead nodded slowly, looking over his frame to figure out if he had injury or not.

"**Bulkhead! You're bleeding!**" Bumblebee told him.

"Where?!" Bulkhead asked frantically, looking around himself.

"**Here.**" Bumblebee reached up Bulkhead's head where he patted the area near his eye. He brought his hand back to him and saw fresh Energon on his fingers.

"Oh."

As Megatron reached out to help Bumblebee and Bulkhead up, Optimus turned around and looked at his team. Most of them just had simple cuts and bruises. Dreadwing had a gash on his leg which Knock Out was looking over and Smokescreen had a very deep cut down his arm.

But as far as Optimus was concerned, none of them looked to have symptoms of Black Energon poisoning.

"_**Optimus? Is everyone okay? We saw a major Energon spike and then all your signals disappeared. They've only just come back online,**_" Ratchet explained through the .

"Everyone-"

"Optimus!" Ultra Magnus walked up to his leader, "Did Starlight and Arcee find their way home with Wheeljack and Windswept?"

Ratchet must have overheard, "**No. I can't locate their signals! Blasted Earth tech**!"

Without a second thought, Optimus looked at the the group of Cybertronians, "Aquastrike and I will scout for Arcee. Ultra Magnus, take Knock Out and Bumblebee and search for Wheeljack, Windswept and Arcee." Optimus looked at Megatron, "You head back to the warship with the injured members."

A Groundbridge portal swirled open behind them. As the team split up, an ear piercing scream lit up the area.

"Someone! HELP!"

Megatron knew straight away who that voice belonged, "Starlight!" He transformed into his jet form and flew away in search of the femme carrying his sparkling.

Optimus looked at Knock Out, "Help Ratchet treat the injured."

"Optimus, I'd rather be searching for Arcee so I make sure she's-"

"You are required back on the warship. Treating them will help Arcee know that her friends are all right," Optimus told him. He walked to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, "Arcee is a strong fighter. She will be okay."

Knock Out just nodded and helped guide Bulkhead through the Groundbridge behind Dreadwing and Smokescreen.

Optimus then looked at the group, "Autobots, roll out!"

"You know, Ratchet would've found us by now had Optimus not told us to leave the fight scene."

* * *

"Are you gonna shut up?!"

"No I'm not," Windswept declined, "I feel that because of my injury all those years ago, I can't fight with my friends and family. And that's what angers me the most. And I hate it! It just isn't fair!"

"Oh boy," Wheeljack grumbled as the continued to travelling, "Do you even know where we are going?"

Windswept stopped and looked at her arm. She gave it a tap. Then another. Then she practically slapped her arm, "Stupid sensor. Must be playing up!"

"I'm not surprised. Sensors and all that don't work in secluded areas such as forests," Wheeljack stated matter-of-factly.

Windswept growled at him, "Oh shut up Mr Know-it-all. I'm gonna start comparing you to Doc Bot soon."

"Please, I'm no Ratchet. Heck, no one can be like that ray of Sunshine."

"He'd murder you on the spot if he heard you say that to or anywhere near him."

"He can grow up about it-" Wheeljack stopped when he saw the familiar frame of one of his friends, "Is that?"

"Oh Primus no!" Windswept cried as she ran up to one of her closest friends.

The femme was flat on her back like she was in recharge. Windswept checked her friend over to see if their friend had any wounds. The only would she had was the massive one on her stomach that looked to have a black substance around the edges of the wound.

"No…" Windswept gasped, backing away from the femme the ground and into Wheeljack, "She's been stabbed by Black Energon."

* * *

"And then when they left, I don't really remember what happened, but the ground started shaking and then we fell into unconsciousness."

"That's what everyone keeps telling me," Ratchet noted as he patched up Bulkhead's wound.

"None of us know what happened," Smokescreen piped in.

"A logical explanation would be that the bombs they used had a poisonous gas in then that would sedate you. And was released when the bombs went off," Ratchet concluded.

"But the only person capable of such is...Shockwave," Knock Out realised.

"Then that must mean that he is on Earth with Starscream. How else would Screamer get that Predacon?" Bulkhead asked.

"Starscream maybe a coward, but he's no dumb bot," the Decepticon-turned-Autobot medic pointed. Earning strange looks from the others, the crimson red medic shrugged cluelessly, "What?"

"Dumb bot?" Dreadwing questioned.

"It was the only thing that came to mind," Knock Out defended, raising his voice.

"Dude, we get it," Smokescreen piped in, "You're worried about 'Cee."

"Yeah, I just hope she is okay and nothing bad has happened to her."

"Now you understand my struggles with Windswept," Smokescreen said. Then he looked up at Ratchet, "Speaking of which-"

"We still haven't located their signals yet," Ratchet interrupted, already knowing what the rookie was going to say.

"Windswept and Arcee are strong. They will be okay," Dreadwing told his friends.

"Sure hope so," Knock Out muttered.

"Ratchet!"

At the sound of the scream, the group looked at the door as they heard thundering footsteps come closer and closer. They instantly narrowed it down to two people. Optimus and Megatron. But the scream they heard didn't sound like Optimus, which only meant one thing.

Megatron raced his way into the room, carrying a limp Starlight in his arms with a stab wound in her stomach, "Help her!"

"Set her over there, NOW," Ratchet instructed as he and Knock Out made their way to an empty berth.

Megatron did so, placing the femme delicately on the berth. Knock Out looked over the wound. If it what was Black Energon the wound would have Black around its edges.

"She hasn't been stabbed by Black Energon," Knock Out announced.

That still didn't calm Megatron at all, "She is carrying my future child. Please save them both!"

Starlight's eyes opened slightly, gasping in pain, "Please...save my s-sparkling. Not me."

"I'm not allowing the death of two sparks tonight," Ratchet proclaimed. Then he looked at the patients who were now looking better than before, "All of you, OUT! I need all the space I can get."

The Cybertronians rushed out at Ratchets instruction. All bar one.

"Megatron…" Knock Out began.

"I am staying," Megatron told him in a warning tone.

"No you are not!" Ratchet quickly began ushering Megatron out, "We will do the best we can, Megatron."

Before Megatron could do anything, the doors closed, shutting him out of the scene that was about to play out in the med-bay.

* * *

As they continued their scouting, Optimus and Aquastrike find that the sun had faded away and it's place was the moon, declaring that it was now night time. This sort of worked in their favour as they would be able to spot any of the Autobots because of their eye colour. Their blinkers were also switched on as a precaution.

"You think we're gonna find them tonight?" Aquastrike asked.

"I will not stop my search until I find them and make sure they are okay," Optimus replied instantly.

Aquastrike thinned her lips at Optimus answer. Somehow, she didn't believe that the leader of the Autobots was talking about Windswept or Wheeljack, "Does Arcee know?"

"Know what?"

"What me, Starlight and Megatron know."

Optimus sighed, "She does. But I have not heard anything about her response. I have concluded that Knock Out is better for her."

"Don't say that Optimus. You don't know what us femmes say about every situation exactly, or similar, to that," Aquastrike told the Prime, "When a mech admits he has feelings for a girl, the girl is either doing flipping cartwheels as she feels the same for him or she's unsure if she truly has feelings for him. Trust me, Arcee's gonna come around and realize who she's meant to be with."

Optimus jolted suddenly, causing Aquastrike to stop as Optimus narrowed his eyes at three figures in the distance...

* * *

"I wish I could help her. Just to patch up the wound in some way…"

"Windswept-"

"Or at least stabilize her…"

"We can't-"

"Or maybe-"

Wheeljack grabbed Windswept by the shoulders and spun her around to face him, growing tired by her muttering, "You need to stop! We can't go near her. What if pieces of that Energon shard are still in there? You of all people know what happens."

"I know, but we can't just stand here and do absolutely nothing. We need to treat her in some way," Windswept argued, pointing at the still frame of her friend, "Wheeljack, it's getting serious. She's not even awake. I'd feel very much better if we knew her current condition."

"Fine, I'll go look her over." Wheeljack moved away from Windswept and slowly looked over Arcee. He bent down and placed a hand near her wound, just staring and seeing what he can do to help his friend, "Arcee? Wake up. It's your Wrecker pal. Me and Swept are gonna get you outta here."

Windswept just rolled her eyes, pacing furiously, "Give her confidence about the situation when we have no idea where we even are. That's a great idea Wheeljack, the best I've ever heard."

The two heard rustling in the bushes near them. Panicked, they stood protectively on each side of Arcee, their weapons activated and ready to strike whoever threatened to come near them.

"Windswept?"

Windswept deactivated her weapons instantly, "Aquastrike?" When two familiar figures came into view, the red and blue femmes weapons deactivated, "Oh thank Primus."

Wheeljack also deactivated his weapons, "Prime. It's Arcee. She's not-"

Optimus had rushed over and was already by his friends side. He traced her faceplate in an attempt to get a glimpse of movement out of her.

"Aquastrike to Ratchet. We have located Windswept, Wheeljack and Arcee. Open the Groundbridge and prepare med-bay. Arcee's in a whole lot of scrap."

When the Groundbridge swirled to life, Windswept stared at her arm which had her sensor beeping, "I swear this thing hates me."

Optimus nearly jumped out of his armour when he heard Arcee groan in pain, "Optimus…"

"It is okay, Arcee. You are safe."

* * *

Hours had passed. Megatron waited outside the room for an answer on whether Starlight and his sparkling were okay. He paced back and forth, back and forth, the waiting becoming tiring. He would eventually sit down and rest for a few moments before suddenly jumping up and pacing once more.

During his waiting, Ratchet had to storm out of the med-bay when he heard reports of another one of the Autobots being brought into the second medical room adjoining to the one Knock Out and Starlight were in. This did not put Megatron at ease at all as Ratchet didn't tell him what was happening with the femme.

"Megatron?" The silver and purple snapped around to find Aquastrike standing in the doorway, having just come back from the mission with Optimus, "Is everything okay? I heard that Starlight was in the med-bay, but that was as much as I could get outta anyone."

"Someone stabbed Starlight close to where our sparkling is growing," Megatron simply answered, "They were in the middle of a procedure when Ratchet had to rush out."

Aquastrike hummed, "Yeah. Uhmmm, Megatron. Something terrible has occurred. Arcee's been-"

The doors slammed open, revealing the tired and unhappy Knock Out. He looked at the figures waiting around, looking at him for an answer. He just blinked and shook his head before walking away, "I'm sorry."

"Knock Out? KNOCK OUT!" Megatron screamed at his medic to no avail.

Aquastrike walked in first, looking around the room. Starlight was sitting on the slab as if she was in recharge. There was a scar across her stomach where the wound had just been and was now sealed up. She had many tubes connecting to her

"Starlight?" Megatron whispered as he moved over to the femme on the slab.

A groan emitted from her voice. Careful not to hurt her, he hugged the femme, knowing that she was going to be okay. When he pulled away from her, her eyes were now open as she looked around.

"W-What happened?" She weakly asked.

As Megatron explained what had occurred, Aquastrike looked over at a covered tray that looked to have something underneath the cover. Curiosity getting the better of her, she wandered over to it. She pulled the cover off slightly…

"What about Arcee?" Starlight questioned.

Megatron stroked her head, "No one knows. I presume she is okay. She is one of the strongest femmes-"

The Warlord stopped when she heard something clang onto the ground. He looked over to Aquastrike, who was covering her mouth to not let out the sobs of what she had discovered. Megatron also saw what was causing Aquastrike to nearly cry. Under the covers was his and Starlight's sparkling.

Their dead sparkling.

"Me-Megatron, i-is that?" The silver and purple mech looked at the pink and white femme, who was looking like she was ready to cry. She felt around her stomach and found the scar on her stomach, "N-No."

Megatron had to pin her down when she began shaking and wailing. He found a button close the slab of the berth and pressed it, knowing what it meant.

Knock Out reappeared only minutes later. He saw Starlight's condition and quickly knew what to do. He picked up a syringe near the tools he had used only less than an hour ago. He grabbed Starlight and injected it into her, watching her fall into unconsciousness.

"I'm sorry Starlight."

* * *

Please don't kill me guys! Like really don't! I have my reasons!

I didn't know where to go with the sparkling. I just felt that it was a simple storyline that could occur at the start. But over the course of time, I decided to not continue with it. There is a very good reason for this and this reason will start to appear in the next chapters of this story.

As for Arcee's condition, well I'm not saying anything until the next chapter comes along.

See ya's later!


	16. Important Authors Note!

Hey guys. I've got some really disappointing news about this story and my other one that are yet to be completed. Uhmmm, this hasn't been an easy choice but I'm having to completely abandoned this story and my other one. Please check my bio for more on this. Thanks for all your support.


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